An Ending or a New Beginning
by apalusa-light
Summary: Logan proposes and when Rory tells him she's not ready to get married, they break up. As some time passes and their feelings for each other don't change, they each debate whether they did the right thing and where to go from there. LAST CHAPTER UP- JUNE27
1. All or Nothing

After watching the graduation episode last night this story just sort of slammed into my head. The first two chapters just sort of detail the end of the episode with more on the emotion and the internal tickings of the characters. I'm going to try to keep the characters as close to the way they act on the show, but some parts of them may become OOC as the story develops. We'll just have to see.

I'll say this though... I do not like in any way shape or form the way the whole Rogan relationship ended up in the show. After everything that they've gone through together, everything they've been to each other, I just don't understand how the writers and producers justify breaking them up now. And not giving us any reason for why she actually said no?... I mean really, we all know that she wanted to say yes, so WHY, oh God why, did she say no?

I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW (whatever they're calling it these days). I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!

**Chapter One - All or Nothing**

"So it's all or nothing?" Rory asked, her voice and her face expressing the shock that she was feeling at his attitude.

Logan shrugged. "Yeah."

Rory's mind raced, all of the things that she'd been sure of the night before and throughout the morning suddenly didn't seem to line up the same way. All or nothing? He couldn't possibly be serious. This was Logan, the guy with the fly by the seat of my pants attitude, Life and Death Brigade, live for the moment, Logan. _He couldn't be serious, could he?_

"Couldn't we just try?" She asked again, sure that if she voiced often enough, loud enough, that she still wanted to be with him, she just wasn't ready for marriage, that he'd see. He'd understand.

Logan looked at her and though his disappointment was apparent in his eyes the rest of his face betrayed none of the conflicting emotions swirling inside of him.

"What would be the point?" He asked her. If she wasn't ready or willing, if she didn't want to marry him now, _would she ever want to?_

Rory felt her insides starting to crack. The lines and fractures in her heart, and in her soul spread quickly through her but she refused to show that she was breaking. She nibbled on her bottom lip and looked at him with wide eyes. She couldn't say yes and she could see that he wouldn't accept anything else, yet both options terrified her. How could she go on with out him but how could she give him what he wanted when she wasn't ready?

So she said nothing.

She pulled the ring out from under her graduation gown. The beautiful ring that he'd picked out for her. The ring that had looked perfect on her finger. The gorgeous ring that at this moment lay nestled in the blue velvet box. She handed it to him and waited for him to take it from her.

He looked at the box. _How could she do this to him?_ How could she look so calm as she handed his heart back to him. He wanted to scream, cry, or punch something. Didn't she know that he would do anything for her? Didn't she know that he loved her more than he'd ever loved anything in the world? Wanted her more than he'd ever wanted anything else in the world? Still she held the velvet box out to him.

Logan forced him self to reach out and take the box from her. Forced him self to look her in the eyes once more.

"Good bye Rory." He said to her softly and turned away before his composure broke. Nothing had ever hurt like this, not even all of his combined injuries from jumping off of that cliff the previous spring in Costa Rica. She was breaking him, his heart, his soul, his spirit. So he walked away and though every part of him wanted to turn back and beg, plead and promise her anything to keep her with him, he forced him self to keep walking. Forced him self not to turn and take one last look. And then he was gone.

Rory watched him walk away and couldn't even force words of farewell to her lips. She was trembling on the inside.

Crying.

Sobbing.

Screaming.

But she would not ruin this day for her grandparents or her parents. She would not turn what was to date, her greatest accomplishment into a day of pain and failure. She would deal with the pain later, this was her choice after all. She was the one who'd said no. She was the one that had caused the end. And as he disappeared from her sight she knew that despite the fact he was the one who'd physically done it, she was the one who'd walked away.

She cleared her expression as best she could and turned back to her parents and grandparents. She walked determinedly toward them and when her mother's eyes tried to search her own, she avoided Lorelai's gaze and spoke brightly with her grandmother and grandfather. With her dad.

She would not ruin this day for them, even though by doing what she'd thought was the right thing for her, she'd ruined it forever for herself.

So what do you think? Review and let me know... or just bitch about the outcome of the episode... joking, but really let me know if you like it and if I should even bother continuing to write it!

apalusa :o)


	2. Empty Spaces

So this is the second chapter and again, it's mostly just show material with some filler to lead it. Next chapter will be the start of my own invention and I'll get it up as soon as I can!

_I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

Review if you want to... but I'll say this once (okay probably more than once) the more reviews I get the faster I'll try to update, and if I'm not getting feedback I'll assume that you just don't like it and will turn my focus back to my other stories... which some of you will probably tell me to do anyways:( I promise that I'll have a new chapter of **_Best is Yet to Come _**ready right away, I'm just doing edits and touch-ups!

**Chapter Two Empty Spaces**

"He just walked away?" Lorelai asked. She hadn't asked while her parents and Chris had talked enthusiastically with Rory about graduation. She hadn't asked in the car on the way to the restaurant for a celebratory lunch with them. None of them had said anything about the fact that Logan hadn't joined them. His absence spoke for itself. Now she wanted details.

**_If_** she was perfectly honest with herself she would admit that she was surprised that Rory had said no. But at the same time, _**if**_ she was being perfectly honest with herself she would admit that if turning Logan down was the right thing for Rory to do, her daughter would be so destroyed by it. Because the truth didn't sit to well on her shoulders or in her stomach, it was fortunate for her that she wasn't being perfectly honest with herself.

"Yes." Rory told her with a small, somewhat baffled, shake of the head. It had been hours since the ceremony, since she'd talked to Logan. Hours since she'd watched him walk away from her. Hours since she'd let him walk away from her.

"How could he do that?" Rory asked her mother. Her eyes held her mother's over the box that they were carrying down the stairs from her apartment. When her Lorelai didn't say anything immediately, Rory continued. "Why couldn't he understand that I'm just not ready. I don't know where I'm going to work or what I'm going to do in the meantime. I didn't think we'd get to this point so soon..."

"What do you mean?" Lorelai asked quickly, a sinking feeling starting in her stomach.

Rory floundered for a moment, not sure how to explain what she was feeling. Finally she spoke. "Well, I mean, I've always thought about us being married. About how things would work, how great it would be. I just hadn't expected him to ask me so soon. To want that so soon."

"You'd really thought about that kind of stuff?" Lorelai questioned. Since the moment that Logan had asked her for Rory's hand, all she'd really thought about was how she felt about it. They were young. Rory's career path wasn't settled. California was so far away from Conneticut.

"Don't you remember last year at the Vineyard?" Rory replied. "I've been thinking about what it would be like to marry Logan since before then. Since before we broke up last year."

Lorelai swallowed and looked away. Suddenly she knew that Rory hadn't wanted to say no. She'd wanted to say not yet.

"What exactly did you tell him?" Lorelai asked and waited for the answer on baited breath.

Rory sighed and to Lorelai the sound told her that her daughter felt defeated.

"I told him that I couldn't accept right now." Rory explained. "I told him that, uh, that I wasn't ready to make that kind of life choice. That for the first time in my life I'm okay with the fact that I don't know exactly what I'm going to be doing next week, or next month. That I felt that everything was wide open for me. That if I married him right now those doors would close."

"And what did he say?" Lorelai asked again. That sinking feeling was starting to weigh her down and along with it a healthy case of sympathy and guilt.

"That he didn't want to take steps back, didn't want to go back to the long distance thing. Finally he just said it was all or nothing."

Tears burned in Lorelai's eyes as she watched her daughter explain and as she noted the symmetry between Rory and Logan's ending and her own ending with Luke the previous spring. An ultimatum that the recipient just couldn't stand up to in time to save the relationship.

The two women continued to move boxes and bags out of the apartment and into the moving van outside in silence. Both reflecting on the events that had led up to that day. Both wondering if they'd done the right things, said the right things, if they'd made mistakes that couldn't be fixed.

They entered the apartment to pick up the last two boxes.

"Last ones." Rory announced.

"No, no. See this is why I don't do exercise." Lorelai replied with an exaggerated pant. She'd been watching Rory and knew that she was on the verge of tears, or anger.

"How are you doing?" She asked her.

Rory's brow furrowed and she actually thought about it before she could answer. "Horrible. I miss him already." She admitted and Lorelai could hear the tears in her voice. "I mean, I graduated today. This should be a great day for me. Now, I'll always look back at this day and remember this horrible feeling."

"Oh hun." Lorelai said in a comforting tone. "I think you did the right thing."

"You do?" Rory interrupted surprised.

"Yeah." She smiled weakly in response. "I mean you're young, you've got a lot of time to find a guy that you'll love and when he asks you to marry him it will be instinctive. You won't hesitate. You'll just know that it's right."

Rory listened to the words and something in them made her smile. "You really think so?"

"I do." Yet a part of her wanted to say "Are you sure?" She was the one who'd been uncomfortable with the idea of Logan asking Rory to marry him, afraid that Rory would say yes and that she'd lose her daughter forever, worried that he wasn't the one for Rory. Now she wondered if she'd made another mistake, another misjudgement and this time Rory would be the one who paid the cost.

"No avacodo tree." Rory said in a solemn tone.

"Nope." Lorelai replied in kind.

"Maybe I'll get my own avocado tree." Rory continued.

"Oh, or a peanut tree..." Lorelai rambled on with the different types of trees that Rory could get instead. The conversation was ludicrous, not something all that unusual for the two of them, and aimed entirely to cheer Rory up.

Rory listened with half an ear and gave absent responses to her mother's diatribe while she looked around the apartment, memories both good and bad lived here. She could see Logan eating cereal at the table with Doyle. Paris arguing with C-Span on the couch. She and Logan making love on that same couch the weekend that Paris and Doyle had gone away. In her mind she saw the look on Logan's face when she'd asked for time to think about her answer the night before, the look on his face when she'd told him she couldn't say yes. And in her mind she watched him walk away from her and out of her life.

She'd told him that she was comfortable with that feeling of wide open. That she was okay not knowing for sure what was going to happen. Funny how that same not knowing was now scaring the hell out of her and those doors and all the wide open space just seemed empty.

It was all empty space with out him.

She followed Lorelai to the door, and glanced back one more time before turning the light off and closing the door.

"Peanuts don't grow on a tree." Rory interrupted her mother and Lorelai glanced back at her in surprise. "They grow in the ground." And so they would argue all the way home about how peanuts grew, where they grew, what other trees Rory could grow instead and they'd both ignore the thoughts they'd made a huge mistake.

Like I said people, more reviews quicker updates!

What are you waiting for? Hit the 'Go' Button... it's just right there...

apalusa ;)


	3. Convenient Excuses

What can I say people... I opened my e-mail this morning and there were 22 e-mailed reviews already and I just checked again and there were 16 more. You can be garaunteed that I will be continuing this story. The pleas, the praise, the begging and ranting; I might be hunted down and killed if I didn't continue the story. lol.

Seriously though, thank you everyone for your reviews and your comments. I'm encouraged to write this story and extremely happy to see that I'm not alone in my hate for last nights episode. Sure I can see the symmetry of ending the series the way it started, with our girls alone, but come on... after seven years shouldn't they be a little better off? Really, really hated it. I don't think it's possible for me to express just how much I truly hated it. Okay, okay... enough with my ranting, for now, and on to the story. This is complete AU now, I'm not even going to attempt to take it in the same direction as the show, especially since right about now I really think the shows writers totally suck.

Right sorry, no more ranting.

Today I really do wish that I did cause than I'd re-write last night's episode and put things the way they should be but unfortunately _I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view! _And thank God for that, since it's about the only way I'll get my happily ever after for Rory and Logan.

**Chapter Three - Convenient Excuses**

Lorelai watched Rory as she walked down the street talking with Lane who was pushing a double baby stroller. Both girls were smiling and laughing about something just as Lorelai had seen them do numerous times in the past, but now there was something different about it. It wasn't just the fact that they were grown woman and that Lane had two beautiful babies. The difference was in Rory and Lane themselves.

She'd been watching for weeks, trying to figure out what it was. Trying to see what had changed in her daughter and Lane that made them so much different from the way they'd been growing up. Still, she hadn't found it, couldn't determine what it was.

"It makes a picture doesn't it?" Patty asked from behind Lorelai.

Lorelai turned and smiled at the older woman. "It sure does. I'm so happy that she's home."

"She sure hasn't spent much time here in the last few years." Patty agreed. "Of course, that's expected when kids grow up. They leave the nest, find their own place, make lives for themselves."

"Yeah," Lorelai said and glanced back toward Lane and Rory. The girls had stopped in the town square and were sitting on a bench, still talking, and each of them had a baby gently bouncing on their knee. Lanes twins were nearly five months old already and they were growing like weeds.

Patty saw the look in Lorelai's eye as she glanced at the girls, it was an expression that many members of the town had seen appear in her eye repeatedly for the last month or so. She wasn't sure if there was something going on with Rory and Lorelai that the town didn't know, and while that annoyed her, it worried her on a different level.

"She seems to be enjoying her time. Working some with Andrew at the book store, spending time with Lane and you and helping out with things at the inn." Patty commented hoping that she'd be able to get Lorelai to give her some gossip, not that she called it that; it was _news_.

"It's been really nice." Lorelai agree and she turned back to Patty smiling again. "I think she's really glad to have the time to reconnect with Lane and the rest of the town. She missed everyone so much and all the craziness that is the Hollow when she was at school."

"We missed her too sweetie." Patty cooed and patted Lorelai's arm. She gave that arm a squeeze and then released her. "So when does she leave for her new job?"

Lorelai grimaced slightly and hoped that Patty didn't notice. Of course Patty did.

"She hasn't found a job yet, actually." Lorelai admitted slowly.

"Really?" Patty asked, honestly surprised. Lorelai smiled weakly in response but said nothing. "She's such a bright girl. I'd figured that it wouldn't take her long to find work somewhere."

"She's looking. She's applied at a lot of places around here. New York, Providence, Boston, Philly, some smaller papers." Lorelai told her. "She's still doing some freelance work with an online magazine, so she's still writing and everything, but she hasn't found something at a paper quite yet."

"Well, I'm sure she'll find something soon." Patty replied. As she thought about what Lorelai had said she glanced toward the girls themselves. She too noted the difference in the girls, the way they'd grown, changed. The thing that bothered her was the lack of brilliance, not in smarts but in expression, in Rory. Sure she was happy, but something dimmed that happiness.

It had been just over a month since Rory's graduation and her move back to town. The Gilmore girls had spent most of their time since in town, except for one weekend when they'd gone to New York for a 'girls weekend.' They worked, they spent time with friends, they drank coffee at Luke's or Weston's, they had movie nights and girls nights. And that thought caused something to occur to Patty.

"So how is Rory's young man doing?" She asked in a casual tone. "We haven't seen him in town since just before her graduation." She added in the same voice.

Immediately a shutter dropped in Lorelai's eyes and dimmed her entire face. "I'm sure Logan is doing well. He moved out to the West Coast just after her graduation." Lorelai told Patty in a flat voice.

"When is Rory planning on going to see him?" Patty prodded. She had a feeling that this was what had been bothering Lorelai, if you took in to account the sudden and drastic change of expression. And if it was bothering Lorelai, than it would also be what was bothering Rory.

Lorelai glanced again back at Rory and then smiled bright and false at Patty. With a shrug she replied vaguely. "Who knows. It's been nice talking to you Patty, I'll see you again soon I'm sure, but I've really got to get back to the Inn." As she spoke Lorelai backed away.

"Of course, of course. See you later sweetie." Patty told her with a wave as she watched Lorelai beat a fast retreat. When she was gone, Patty turned her gaze again to Rory and Lane sitting in the square.

_So that's the way the wind blows._.. she thought to herself.

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"Are you ever going to tell me what happened with Logan?" Lane asked her oldest and closest friend. She didn't even glance in Rory's direction, just kept making faces at her son sitting on her knee, but she sensed Rory freeze beside her.

"What do you mean?" Rory finally replied in a strained voice as she started jiggling the baby on her lap again.

"Well," Lane said. "I'm just curious about what you're doing bumping around Stars Hollow when Logan is in California."

"How did you know that Logan was in California?" Rory asked quickly.

Lane did look at her friend now. "Your mom told me just before your graduation that Logan had got the job in Silicon Valley that the two of you had been so excited about. Plus, I haven't seen him around here since graduation so I just figured he was already there."

Rory remained silent and stared at the baby she held. The pain was still in her heart and in her soul. And the thought that maybe she'd been wrong still hounded her. Finally she spoke to her friend.

"He wanted me to come with him."

"Of course he did." Lane responded in a tone that told Rory she cared and she'd try to understand.

"He'd found a house for us to rent about half an hour from San Fransisco. He said there was an avacodo tree in the backyard." Rory told her. Talking about what had happened, what she could have had, brought the pain back to the surface.

"You do like guacamole."

"That's what I said. Mom too." Rory admitted with a small, humorless chuckle. She was still staring at the baby, afraid that if she met Lane's eyes she'd fall apart. "He'd done research on the things that we could do in the area, best places for coffee, how far to the different newspapers."

Lane didn't say anything, she just waited patiently for Rory to continue. If being a mother had taught her anything so far, it was that if you were patient you could usually get what you were after. She had a feeling that Rory didn't even know how much emotion had leaked into her voice. The pain in her best friends voice was something that she had never in her life heard there before. Patience won out when Rory started speaking again.

"He asked me to marry him." With the words Rory's voice broke and her breath shook.

"Oh Rory." It was obvious that Rory hadn't said yes, but Lane couldn't think of any reason why she wouldn't have.

Now that she'd said the words, the rest tumbled out of her and Rory told her the rest. "He asked me at the party my grandparents had for me. I couldn't answer him Lane. It was just so out of the blue and I wasn't expecting it, so I asked him for some time to think about it. I mean, marriage is a big step and I wanted to be sure before I answered. After graduation I saw him, talked to him." Rory took a deep breath before continuing to purge the entire situation to her best friend.

"I told him I wasn't ready to get married. That I wanted to keep my options open. I meant job wise, not relationships. But he'd taken the job in California already and was moving out there and he said he didn't want to go back to a long distance relationship if I wasn't going to move with him." She sighed. "He said he didn't want to take steps back, so it was all or nothing."

The pair sat silently beside each other. Lane taking in everything that Rory had just told her and Rory working to compose herself.

"I thought that you'd been talking about the future." Lane finally said.

"Well sure," Rory admitted. "We'd talked about him taking the job in California or me getting one of the jobs around here that I'd applied for and it was implied that we'd still be together, but we'd never actually discussed getting married."

"You told me that you'd thought about marrying him though. You told me that last year when you were split up over the holidays." Lane reminded her.

"I know but that was just me thinking. Fantasizing." Rory told her.

Lane furrowed her brow and looked at Rory, who had finally managed to look back at her. "You said then that you wanted to marry him Rory."

Again Rory looked away and was silent. That was true. She had told Lane that. She'd told Lane that over a year and a half ago. She still wanted to marry Logan, that hadn't changed but the timing...

"Wanting to marry him and being ready to marry him are two different things Lane." Rory said and looked back at her friend again.

"And why aren't you ready?" Lane asked.

"I haven't found a job and I don't know what I'm doing with that." Rory answered. "I don't want to be dependent on him, Lane, I refuse to be."

"That's understandable and I completely agree but that's not a reason not to get married." Lane replied. "Ror that's just a reason to keep looking for a job until you find one."

"I'm still looking. I certainly wouldn't have stopped looking but I..." Rory trailed off, knowing that now she was just making excuses. "Okay you're right about that one. But it wasn't the only reason. We're so young."

Lane raised both eyebrows in surprise this time. When she finally spoke there was amusement and irritation in her voice. "I'm the same age as you Rory, do you think that it was the wrong thing for Zack and I to get married?"

Rory's eyes shot to Lanes, locked and she shook her head. "No, of course not. But it's different for you guys."

"How?" She replied in challenge.

Rory opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. _How was it different?_ In truth she hadn't really thought about Lane and Zack when she'd been thinking about her response. She'd thought about Dean and Lindsey, Luke and Rachel, even her mom and dad, but she hadn't factored Lane and Zack into things. They were actually happy and they were in love and they had two glorious and perfect little babies. Unable to come up with anything to say Rory turned away and looked around the square.

"That's what I thought." Lane said. "It's a convenient excuse but when you love some one and want to be with them, age doesn't matter Rory."

"What's the rush though?" Rory countered. _See,_ she thought to herself, this is something that she'd debated with herself. She'd said nearly the same thing to Lorelai the night Logan proposed.

"Why wait?" Lane rallied. Rory had no answer to that and so she only sighed. "What else?" Lane asked.

"Uh, I don't know," Rory told her. "Those were the two biggest reason's I'd come up with I guess." The tone of her voice told Lane that there was more and she wasn't sure if she should keep sharing.

Lane shook her head. "No you don't." She scolded. "Rory tell me the rest."

Rory looked at her friend in question. Lane looked straight back at her. Finally Rory's eyes flickered and she glanced away.

"It's all the way in California." She admitted.

"So?" Lane answered. "There are newspapers in California. Big and small, city or town. There are magazines. I'm sure you'd find a job there just as easy as you'll find a job here. So that eliminates the work issue. And again, it's California, so everybody is young out there, and if they're old it's cause their stinking rich or outrageously famous, so that deals with the age thing. So what's the problem?"

"It's **_all the way_** in California. All the way across the country. A couple time zones and few thousand miles away."

"Your dream, since like forever, has been to be an overseas correspondent Rory." Lane pointed out. "Overseas is a couple time zones and more than a few thousand miles away!"

Again Rory was momentarily speechless. _Had she considered that?_ But there were other factors to that as well. _Weren't there?_ Sure there were.

"If I was an overseas correspondent I'd be able to come home between assignments and stuff. I wouldn't be gone all of the time." Rory replied.

"Do you really think that if you lived in California you wouldn't be able to come home for visits? Weekends, holidays?" Lane asked her increduously. "Logan's family is here too Rory. His friends. Don't you think he'd have wanted to come back once in a while too?"

_How had she not considered that? _Of course Logan would want to come back for holidays, to see friends. _Why had the thought of moving to California seemed like the end of the world?_

"I just, it's, uh..." Rory whispered and her thoughts whirled around inside her head.

All of the reasons that she'd thought of not to marry him were gone. It didn't matter about their age, sure they were young but they loved each other. Logan himself had named papers that she could try to work at and there was bound to be others as well. California was in the continental United States, so sure there would be time zone differences but a trip home wouldn't result in jet lag or require twelve hour flights. _Where did the problems come in?_

Then suddenly everything stilled in her mind. Excuses evaporated like mist, confusion cleared and she knew.

She turned to Lane and met her best friends eyes. Rory's expression was blantantly horrified but Lane could see the pain mutating into anger. The emotion snowballing to immense proportions.

"She wouldn't tell me her opinion of what I should do." Rory said slowly her voice thick with emotion. "But she's never liked him. She's never really given him a chance and never tried to get to know him, not really. I knew she didn't want me to marry him. I knew she didn't really approve and I knew that if she had said anything she would have told me three things: I was too young, but God, she didn't get married until she was nearly forty and looked how that turned out. It was too far away. And that I don't have a job yet, I haven't established my career."

As she rambled her voice raised, getting louder and louder. The anger in her voice, and the pain, becoming more and more evident with each word.

"She's still hurt that I took time off school. That we fought and that I did something directly opposite of what she wanted me to do." Rory continued. "So she didn't say anything, didn't tell me that she didn't want me to marry him because she figured that I would turn around and do the opposite. Just to spite her or something. Not being able to talk to her about it, to anybody really, it confused me and I thought that I'd figured out what I wanted. I wanted to marry him. You're right, I'd been thinking about it, dreaming about it for so long and, oh God, and now it's too late. She didn't say a word to encourage or discourage me and still managed to get me to do exactly what she wanted, what she thought was right."

Tears spilled out of Rory's eyes and her breath caught on a sob. Lanes eye's burned while she nestled first one baby and then the second back into the stroller. Once they were both strapped in, she turned back to Rory and pulled her oldest and best friend into a hug. She sat quietly letting Rory cry and glaring at people when they took too much interest in them. After a few minutes she watched as Patty crossed the street from her dance studio and started shoo-ing the gawkers away. Once they were all gone she sat down on the opposite side of Rory and rubbed her shoulder.

"You go ahead and cry sweetie." Patty told her in a gentle voice. "And when you're done crying, then we'll figure out a way for you to get your man back."

Lane met Patty's eyes over Rory's head and smiled in thanks.

I_t may be a town of crazies,_ she told herself, _but they were crazies that loved you like family._

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I'll keep this going as long as people want it. I've got a pretty good idea where it's going and a vague idea as to how I'm going to take it there. I'm posting as I write so it might take a bit longer between chapters than I'd normally wait, but I'll be as quick about it as I can.

Same rules... rant, rave, comment or review... the more I get from you, the more you'll get from me!!

apalusa :-)


	4. What You Wanted

The outpour of desire for this story... well it's enough to make any girl blush hehehe. Thanks so much you guys, it really motivates me to see how much people like the story and want to see more. You all are the driving force behind my writing. Well you and my current hate of the GG writers, but that's mostly a temporary thing cause usually I'm pretty happy with the way they carry things along.

I'm glad that so many people liked the way Rory realized that she'd made such a huge mistake. I think that even in the episode you could see in her face, even as she handed him the ring back, that she wondered if she was doing the right thing. But that's just me. I wanted to use Lane as the vehicle in realization to show that, despite what Lorelai thought and wanted, the people closest and most dear to Rory absolutely believed that she'd made a mistake and that she should be with Logan. And I had to add a bit of Miss Patty in there, because she's a Stars Hollow staple and she's always involved in whats important to the people of the town.

We'll see more of the Lane, Patty and the other townies later on, but after this chapter we switch gears for awhile.

That said we'll move on: _I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

**Chapter Four - What You Wanted**

"Rory!!!!!" Lorelai shouted as she walked in to the house when she got home that night. "You here?" she called out.

"Just give me a second." Came the muffled response from Rory in her bedroom.

Lorelai set the bags of takeout from Al's on the kitchen table, hung her purse on the back of a chair and started unloading the food.

"I come bearing food!" Lorelai called out again.

"Chinese?" Rory's voice asked hopefully.

"Indian."

"Al's?" The voice came again clearer this time and then the bedroom door opened and Rory walked into the kitchen.

Lorelai smiled widely and waved at the table. "Your dinner is served, madame."

Rory returned the smile but Lorelai noticed that the expression didn't move into her eyes. In fact Rory's eyes looked dull and a bit red, as if Rory had been crying. There was little doubt in Lorelai's mind what Rory had been crying about. She was fully aware that Rory was still upset over her and Logan's breakup, nearly every night Lorelai would hear her crying in her room.

Lorelai tried not to think about the situation at all. If she didn't think about it, she didn't have to worry about whether she'd handled the situation the right way. As far as she was concerned, Logan was no longer an issue and she didn't need to worry anymore about her little girl leaving her alone to go be with some rich, spoiled society brat. No matter how she looked at it, she had to believe that Rory was better off without Logan, and she had to hope that soon Rory would see that too.

Needless to say, Rory and Lorelai hadn't actually discussed the collapse of Rory's relationship since the night of her graduation. Lorelai didn't want to say anything that might make Rory angry at her and Rory hadn't said anything because it hurt too much to talk about.

The girls dug into the food, eating directly from the takeout containers while sitting at the kitchen table. Lorelai told Rory about her day at the Inn and a highly humorous argument that had occurred between Kirk and Michel. Rory talked about Lane and the babies, how cute and happy they all were. They had finished eating and putting the leftovers away when Rory finally broke the ice on a long dreaded conversation.

"When Logan came here and asked you for your permission to marry me," Rory started her voice level and calm. "What was your first thought?"

"Uh, I suppose my first thought was that you were so young, too young to get married." Lorelai replied. She was shocked that Rory would bring the topic up, she knew how much it still bothered her, but she hoped this was a sign that Rory was starting to get over the blond.

"Hhmm," Rory hummed in response meanwhile thinking to herself '_Yep there's number one_.'

"And after you'd given him your permission to ask me and he'd gone, what were your thoughts then?" Rory asked.

A small frown formed on Lorelai's lips. "Does it really..."

"Yes, it matters." Rory interrupted, knowing that her mother was going to try to get out of having this conversation with her.

Lorelai sighed and walked down the hallway to the living room, waving Rory to follow her. She sat on the couch and waited for Rory to get comfortable on the opposite end. She used the time to align her thoughts, to try and figure out how she wanted to say what she needed to say.

"I was concerned that you weren't ready for marriage." Lorelai replied. To herself she thought that Rory could never be ready for marriage to Logan, he was to immature, to irresponsible.

"Wasn't ready?" Rory asked cautiously.

"Well sure." Lorelai told her. "You're young, you've got lots of time to find the guy that you want to settle down with and start a family. You've always had big dreams and I know you want to get your career going before you do that settling. You and Logan hadn't been together very long..."

"We'd been together for nearly three years." Rory interrupted.

"I know but you were in college still. Being together in college is like being with someone in high school; it's seems like it's serious but it's not real life." Lorelai clarified before continuing on. Because she was avoiding looking at Rory she didn't notice that the younger girl was getting more and more angry, more upset.

"It just seems to me that Logan didn't suit you all that well." Lorelai admitted. "He's impulsive and you think things through. He reacts poorly to bad situations, makes bad choices and doesn't consider the consequences. He was always a bad influence on you..." Lorelai was cut off as Rory exploded.

"This is why you wouldn't talk to me when I asked you to help me with my decision when he asked me to marry him!" Rory yelled and jumped off the couch to pace around the room. Lorelai was so shocked to the outburst that she didn't respond to the statement and could only listen as Rory continued.

"You hated him. Everything about him. But you never really tried to get to know him. You looked at him and all you saw was a blond, rich society boy and you hated that because he represented everything about the life that you ran away from." Rory ranted while pacing.

"You know what you just told me? You told me that you had immediately thought that I shouldn't marry him because of the way he acted when we'd first met. That you thought I was too young to understand life in the real world, what love is in the real world. You didn't want me to marry him because our personalities weren't exactly the same, that we did things differently from each other, looked at things differently." Rory huffed out a breath and rounded on her mother. Lorelai's face was pale and her eyes wide as she listened to her daughter and actually took in what she was saying.

Rory paused and stared at her mother. When she finally continued her voice was deadly calm. "You described a person who is impulsive and doesn't always think about the consequences of what they do. Someone who makes bad choices and then reacts poorly when things turn south. Who does that sound like mom?"

"Do you know that one of the things that attracted me to Logan in the first place was that he reminded me a little of you." Rory told her mother and had the pleasure of seeing her mother's mouth drop open. "I've always looked up to and respected you and I could see bits of your personality in him. But he's more than that."

"He shares my love of literature, maybe not as intense but he does. He can debate and argue with me about it and he's right just as often as I am." Rory explained and she sat back down. "He's a hard worker when he needs to be, and he always gets the job done. He suffered a major defeat this spring and sure, he took a couple of weeks and wallowed in his failure, acted immature and irresponsible but when push came to shove, he got off his ass and worked hard to find a job that not only interested him and he was good at but could make him happy too."

"I realized today that all of the reasons that'd I'd come up with not to marry him, were reasons that you would have provided me with. And when you think about it a bit more deeply, every one of those reasons is lost by circumstance." Rory paused. "I knew, even as I told him that I wasn't ready, I knew that those reasons were just handy excuses. That the real reason I was telling him no, the only thing that kept me from putting that ring on and moving to California, was because I knew you didn't want me to. Deep down, I knew."

Lorelai's heart pounded in her chest and that nagging sense of guilt that snuk into her mind during weak moments, exploded inside of her. "Oh honey, no."

"Yes." Rory said firmly and looked Lorelai directly in her eye. "I said no and let him walk away, all but forced him out the door, because I knew it was what you wanted."

The girls sat together silently, both lost in thoughts for a long time. Nearly half an hour later Rory pushed herself up from the couch and started walking towards the kitchen and her bedroom. Lorelai said nothing as Rory went into her bedroom and then a few minutes later came back out pulling one of her suitcases and carrying a second. She jumped up quickly off the couch but stood still watching her daughter. Rory set her bags down by the door and turned back to Lorelai. They looked at each other for a minute before Lorelai broke the silence.

"Where are you going?" She had to ask even though she had a pretty good idea what the answer was going to be. A horn tooted from outside announcing the arrival of someone.

"San Fransisco." Rory replied. Someone knocked on the door and Rory turned to go. "I'll call and let you know when I get there. My flight information and the number for the hotel I'll be staying at are on my desk in my room."

"Rory." Lorelai started to speak but Rory cut her off.

"I'm not sure how long I'll be gone. I don't know if Logan will see me, if he'll even want to talk to me after what I've done but I have to try. I love him too much not to try and get him back. I know you won't understand but this is something I have to do." Rory spoke with her back to her mother. "I have to try and get him back, mom. I have to believe that he loves me enough not to just turn me away. I need him. And if that means I lose you, well then that's my choice."

Rory put her hand on the knob and pulled the door open.

"Hi love." Finn smirked.

"Gilmore." Colin nodded in greeting.

"Thanks for coming to give me a ride to the airport guys. I know that you're busy these days." Rory greeted them with a kiss on their cheeks and each of the guys reached for one of the bags sitting by the door. "I'm sure you both remember my mother."

Finn and Colin glanced at Lorelai and they each gave her a small smile. She returned the smile but said nothing. Neither boy missed the wet eyes and pale faces of both the Gilmore girls.

"We should get going, I don't want to miss my flight." Rory said. They guys turned and headed back to the SUV parked in the driveway. Rory started out but paused in the doorway.

"Bye, mom." Rory said softly and walked out, pulling the door closed behind her.

Lorelai stood still as a statue as she listened to the vehicle start again and then back out of the driveway and drive away. She was still standing there five minutes later when there was a knock on the door. Running on auto, Lorelai walked to the door and pulled it open.

"Luke." She whispered and the tears finally spilled from her eyes. "What are you doing here?" Lorelai managed to ask.

"Rory thought that you might need some company." He told her. At his words Lorelai burst in to shaking, sobbing tears and threw herself into his open arms.

-----------------------------

In the backseat of the SUV Rory cried silently as Logan's two oldest and best friends drove her to the airport. They didn't talk, they didn't ask any questions or demand details. When they reached the terminal, Finn parked and they all got out of the truck. Colin got the bags out of the back and Finn put his arm around Rory's shoulders while picking up one of her bags. Colin carried the second bag and the three of them walked into the terminal building. Finn led her towards one of the desks and Colin talked quietly with the attendent at the counter.

Finally Rory realized that they weren't at her terminal, they were in the building for private planes and charter flights. Her gaze went to Finn's in question.

Finn saw the look and answered with a smirk. "Logan would kill us if we didn't take good care of his best girl."

"Logan might kill you for telling me where he is and for helping me." Rory remarked.

"I don't know what happened between you two Ror, but he still cares about you." Finn told her.

Rory closed her eyes to avoid the sympathy in his and sighed. "He asked me to marry him Finn, and I didn't say yes."

"Rory." Colin said from her right and something in his voice insisted she look at him when he spoke again. "He was hurt, there is no denying that, but he still loves you."

"I hope that's enough."

------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------

I know you're wondering: is she going to have to choose between Lorelai and Logan? And if she does, will she really choose Logan? I think I know. I'm pretty sure I know, but we'll all just have to wait and see. As to why I'd have Colin and Finn come get her and give her a ride instead of Lane or somebody else from town, the reason for that will be explained later. So will the townies input and plan to help Rory get Logan back.

I hope you all liked it and will continue to review like mad, cause I gotta say when I see how many reviews there are for this story I think to myself _'Damn, I better start on the next chapter...'_

And speaking of the next chapter: several people asked when we would see Logan and how he's dealing with the breakup, the move and everything else... Well the answer is simple, the next chapter revolves around Logan and his reaction.

Till next time :o) apalusa

(don't forget to review!! just press go)


	5. What Now

Have I mentioned how much I absolutely, positively, unquestionably love you guys? Cause if I haven't then I'm saying it now. I've been writing and posting stories for a while now and nothing has ever got the feedback from readers that this story has. Four chapters and already more than 120 reviews. I've never felt so loved... nor has my ego ever been so healthy! (thanks koalababy : ) I don't know what to say to all of you besides **thank you, so much.**

As promised, here is the next chapter... We're with Logan now and this chapter is back on graduation day. I thought about writing this in a number of different ways and after a few false starts and some hard thinking, this is what we ended up with. I base a lot of Logan's reaction on some of the things he said in his proposal and his underlying emotion at the time. Hopefully it won't disappoint!

I wish I had some control but unfortunately _I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

Enjoy!

**Chapter 5 - What Now**

The amber liquid in his cup swirled around, and around, and around as he moved the tumbler in small circles on the table top. Logan watched the fluid motion and was glad that he'd consumed enough of the liquor to make all the emotions that were bombarding him nothing more than a numb pain. But not even the scotch was able to make him forget that Rory wouldn't be going with him to California, that she hadn't said yes to his proposal and to top it all off that they'd broken up.

Logan took another swig from the glass and clenched his teeth as the scotch burned it's way down his throat. He looked around the room and tried not to notice the happy, laughing people that surrounded him. His friends had long since abandoned him to his brooding and they were at various stages of inebriation throughout the pub. As he watched them he wondered what he was doing there, he wasn't enjoying himself, had nothing to celebrate and no one he particularly wanted to talk to.

_She'd actually turned him down_. Then, when he'd rashly and perhaps unwisely thrown the 'all or nothing' ultimatum in her face, she'd calmly handed the ring back to him and let him walk away. No tears. No crying. No reaction at all. Just thinking about it made his stomach churn. It didn't make any sense.

They'd talked less than a month ago about what they wanted in the future. Sure, they hadn't specifically said "I want to get married!" but they had implied in more than one instance that they wanted to be together no matter what and that they'd figure out someway to make things work, no matter what. So neither of them wanted to be a hindering factor in the other's life choices but if your life was going to be with someone else, they always factored in at least some.

Apparently Rory didn't think so.

He was still stunned by her "I've-got-all-these-open-doors-and-if-we-got-married-some-of-those-doors-would-close" mentality. Getting engaged, being married, it would be a different thing for him too. Something that until he'd met Rory, he'd never thought that he'd look forward to or want. Rory had changed everything. She'd changed him.

He was pulled from his musing by the vibrating of his cell phone. He took the phone out of his pocket and when he saw that the caller was Honor he debated whether he really wanted to answer. Logan finally decided that he'd better just bite the bullet and talk to his sister, because he knew from past experience if he didn't answer, she'd just keep calling back until he did.

"Hello." He answered the phone and his voice was rough and slightly slurred from the alcohol.

"Are you drunk?" She asked in a shocked, and disappointed tone.

Logan's brow furrowed in thought. "Why, yes, Honor I am."

For a brief moment she was silent and then she continued and when she did her tone suggested that she either didn't clue in that something was wrong, or she assumed that he was celebrating.

"Where are you?" She asked conversationally.

"I'm in Hartford at a pub. A bunch of the guys from the LDB are here and we've been drinking since just after the ceremony." Logan told her.

"Where's Rory?" Honor questioned.

Logan let out a low, sardonic chuckle. "That's a really good question." He took another gulp of the liquor with vague hope that more scotch would make the coming conversation less difficult, less painful. "Cause she's not where I thought she was."

Honor paused again before continuing. She'd finally caught something in Logan's tone that told her something wasn't right.

"And where did you think she was?" She asked her little brother.

"I thought that she was in the same place I was. But no," Logan's words slurred together as he rushed them out. "No, she's not in that place and now neither of us will be in the same place again."

"Logan what are you talking about?" Honor sighed in exasperation.

"I asked her to marry me."

Silence. Logan waited numbly to find out what his sister thought, what she'd say, what her reaction was, but nothing came. Again he let out that depreciating laugh.

"Yeah, that was her response too." He told her.

"You asked her to marry you." She said the words finally, slowly, as if testing them out.

"Yes." Logan replied.

Honor sighed as understanding of why her brother was sitting in a bar drinking with his friends instead of spending time with Rory came to her. "And she said no?"

"More or less." Logan admitted.

"What do you mean 'more or less'?" Honor demanded.

"She said she wasn't ready to get married yet." Logan explained.

"That's not a no." Honor started to say but was cut off by Logan's next statement.

"I told her it was all or nothing. I wanted her to agree and move to Cal with me and we'd live in the little house with the avocado tree and we'd bike and hike and she could work at one of the papers in San Fransisco, but she didn't want to move. She didn't want me." Logan rambled and she had to strain to follow what he was saying.

"Logan, Rory loves you."

"So that's why she gave me back the ring?" He asked. "That's why she stood there stone faced and let me walk away with out a word, without a fight."

Honor closed her eyes as she took in the hurt and pain in Logan's voice. "She loves you Logan. You know that."

"No!" Logan snapped at her. "I knew it. Past tense."

The siblings sat in a tensed silence for a full minute before Honor finally spoke again. "Did she give you a reason or anything?"

"Oh, yeah. Apparently by marrying me, she'd be closing doors on job opportunities." Logan answered sarcastically.

"What?!?!" Honor gasped in disbelief. Normally a girl would marry a guy like Logan to open those windows of opportunities.

"That's exactly what I thought." Logan agreed to the outrageous disbelief that Honor displayed.

"So you asked her to marry you, she said she wasn't ready, gave you some lame excuses that she was passing off as reason, you told her it was all or nothing, and she gave the ring back?" Honor asked trying to understand and wanting to make sure that she knew the whole story.

"I asked her last night but she wouldn't answer, said she needed to think about it..." Logan started to explain when Honor cut him off.

"And she still only came up with some lame excuse about closing doors?" Honor interrupted and Logan grunted in response. "Sorry, continue."

Logan took another drink, a smaller one, to brace himself for telling her the basic story. "So she said she needed time to think about it, asked if she could answer me today. I'm thinking - sure, take all the time you need, I know you'll say yes once you think it through. I mean, I know Rory and I know that she doesn't do anything without spending some time debating the situation, making a pro/con list, talking to Lorelai, that kind of thing..." Again Honor interrupted his ramble.

"Lorelai?" Honor asked in a pensive voice. She'd heard from both Logan and Rory in the past year or so that Logan was not Lorelai's favorite person, in fact, from what she'd heard she didn't think Lorelai particularly liked Logan at all.

"Yeah. Rory always talks things through with her, or at least gets her moms opinion of what she should do." Logan answered.

"And Lorelai thinks that you're just a great guy, right?" Honor asked this time allowing sarcasm to inch into her tone.

He opened his mouth to reply but no words came out. He clamped his lips together and took a minute to think that through. He knew that Lorelai didn't really like him, she put up with him for Rory's sake, but she'd given him permission to ask Rory to marry him. Would she then use her influence over Rory to persuade her not to marry him? Logan ran his free hand over his face and sighed.

"Do you really think she would do that?" He finally asked his sister knowing that she was thinking the same thing.

"I don't know, the real question is: Would Rory let her?" Honor responded and in that moment they both knew the truth. Regardless of any reason or excuse that Rory had given him for why she wasn't ready, why she couldn't marry him, the thing that really stopped her was her mother.

They sat in silence for several minutes. Logan stared at the nearly empty cup of scotch on the table in front of him and Honor waited patiently for him to speak again. Tears burned in his eyes but he wouldn't let them fall, refused to let them. The pain he'd been feeling all day multiplied as he came to the realization that no matter how important he was to Rory, her mother would always be first.

He swallowed the grief, the pain and the tears and when he spoke his voice was rough. "What do I do now, Honor?"

"You move on, little brother." She answered in a soothing tone that held love and sympathy. The sound reminded him that in his whole life only she had stood by him through thick and thin, through everything. Until Rory. Until his Ace had come into his life and changed everything, showed him that there were some things in life worth fighting for and some things worth letting go. She'd changed him, made him grow up, made him make choices and she'd made him want more.

"I can't go back to what I was." He said in a defeated tone. "I can't go back to who I was."

"No, no going back." Honor told him.

"Where do I go from here? What do I do?" He asked her and his voice broke as he spoke. The sound of his pain shattered her heart. He'd always been so sure of himself, so confident, hearing him broken was almost too much for her to handle.

"I wish I knew." She said as her tears started to fall.

"What now?" He asked again as the pain flooded out and all he could do at that moment was hang his head in his hands and wait.

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So what do you think? I've always had a bit of trouble writing Logan... finding his voice and his thoughts are just more difficult for me to get out. I like the way it's ended up and I'm already about half done the next chapter and it's not going too bad so hopefully all of you will think it's okay.

In any case, review and let me know... I love hearing from you and what you like, what you don't like and I appreciate when you let me know if something I've written or the way I've written it doesn't make sense to you. This gives me a chance to try and explain it either to you personally or to everyone in one of my authors notes. I can't wait to hear from you and will update as soon as the next chapters ready.

And just one more thing!!!!! Did any one else see the preview for the finale? When she's making her speech: "To my mom, who is everything I am..." That my friends is exactly her problem and just makes me... argh, angry. Sorry, for real this time, no more!

:-) apalusa


	6. These Four Walls

I promised many of you that I'd have chapter 6 up by Sunday morning, so...

Here we are again... and again I have to say thank you for your support, of me and of this story. I wonder, if the CW and DR knew what the reaction to Rory and Logan breaking up was going to be, how vigorously the fans hate it, would they have attempted to do things differently?

The other night I read Ausillo's e-mail interview with Matt Czuchry, and while I can appreciate the perspective that GG has always been focused on Rory and Lorelai and their relationship with one another and that it's the reason that the shows producer's and writers decided to split Rory and Logan up, I will continue to argue that Rory and Lorelai's relationship and their special bond was not in any way diminished by Rory and Logan being together. I've always respected the idea that GG was trying to show both Rory and Lorelai as strong, independent women but I'll never understand why the producer's believe they have to be alone in order to be strong, independent women. I'm strong, I'm independent and I'm married. Apparently, I'm also more open minded than the writers and producers too...

Sorry, I'd just come up with another rant and needed to get that out! Hope you don't mind :(

_I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

Anyways, enjoy and review!

**Chapter Six - These Four Walls**

_Three weeks had never seemed like such a long time_, Logan thought to himself as he made his way through his new home to the kitchen. He set the grocery bags he carried on the counter and then turned to go grab the last of his things from the car to bring them in for the night. He picked up his laptop carrier and slung it over his shoulder, then grabbed the bag of takeout from the back seat of his car and slammed the door shut. On his way into the house this time, he snagged his mail from the box by the door and carried it with him.

He dropped the computer bag on to the couch as he walked by it and went back to the kitchen again. He set the takeout on his table and turned to deal with the groceries. He flipped through the mail quickly, scanning the fronts of the envelopes to see if there was any personal mail in the pile. There wasn't. He tossed the papers onto the end of the counter and started putting his groceries away.

After he'd cleaned that up he grabbed untensils and the mail he'd discarded and returned to the table. He pulled the Chinese takeout containers from the bag and opened them. He sat down and eating directly from the containers, opened and read his mail. When he finished eating he placed the leftovers in the fridge, stacked his bills on the counter by the fridge for him to deal with later and then went to the living room.

He fell on to his couch and picking up the remote, turned on his television. For the next half an hour he flipped through the channels looking for something worth watching, finally settling on CNN when he couldn't find anything he liked. That done, he pulled his computer out of it's bag and turned it on.

For the next two hours he submersed himself in work. At least when he was concentrating on that his mind wouldn't drift to Rory and what she might be doing. Whether she'd got a job yet. Whether she'd already moved on or not.

And there went his concentration.

He saved his work, knowing that he wouldn't get any more done that night, and opened a new window to check his e-mail. He had a few new messages in his inbox and decided that he might as well respond to them. He laughed when he saw the picture of Juliet and Rosemary in the first one he opened. They were on a beach somewhere and just wanted to make sure that he hadn't fallen off the edge of the world. The second was from Honor.

---------

_Hey little brother,_

_ I hope you're getting settled into your new place and that work is going well for you. Are you liking it? Is it everything you'd hoped it would be?_

_ I miss having you close. I know we haven't seen a lot of each other in the last several years, but you were always there and we could see each other if we'd needed to. Plus, you living in California, you don't get the summons from mother anymore for dinner, or tea, or a garden party... Can I come live with you? I'm sure Josh could find a job over there!_

_ How are you doing? I haven't talked to you in a few days, so I'm worried. Should I be worried? I hope you're doing okay, Logan, I hope you're starting to feel better. I won't say getting over it, I know it's not something you're likely to get over for a while but I do hope it doesn't hurt quite so much anymore._

_ Call me this weekend and we can talk more._

_ Love you, Honor_

----------

Logan smiled, even when the reminder of the breakup brought the pain back to the surface, and wrote a quick reply, promising Honor that he'd call on Sunday morning. The next note was from Finn.

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_Mate!  
When are you going to call and invite me for a visit? Bloody Hell, I'd take any excuse to take a few days off. You know you want to show me around... think of all the redheads, Logan. Sunny California. Short skirts, tanned skin and beaches everywhere. Come on mate, I need a vacation!  
Finn_

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He had to laugh, it was summer and Finn was splitting his time between New York, Hartford and Melborne. It was strange to think of Finn actually working, but his father had finally roped him in and was forcing him to start thinking about the business. He didn't e-mail him back deciding that he'd give Finn a call on the weekend when he called Honor and moved to the last message.

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_ Logan,  
How's Cali? Everything you'd thought it would be, or has it lost it's glamor already?_

_ I hope things are good. I know that you're beat up over the whole Rory thing but I really hope that you're not still brooding. Go out Logan. Have a drink or two, socialize. Don't hole up in that little house and think about all the things that you could have had. It's not going to make you feel any better._

_ Give me a call sometime, soon. Finn is driving me nuts. He really needs to get away from his dad.  
Colin._

---------

Logan sighed and penned a response to Colin. He told him that he was doing okay, only a little lie, and that maybe Colin and Finn could come for a visit in a couple weeks. He described a little bit about his work and the area, told him about the people he'd met so far. But he allowed his closing remark to show that not all was well. He said that even with the glamor, California wasn't anything like he'd hoped it would be.

When he'd sent the message off, he closed the program and shut his computer down.

It was true, California just wasn't everything he'd thought it would be. Sure, it was beautiful and the area he was in was really nice, but he'd picked the area with Rory in mind and without her, the whole place seemed to lack something. But he intended to go hiking that weekend, liked he'd suggested to her. And he'd bike and drink coffee on University Avenue and one day, eventually, he'd be okay, happy again.

He got up from the couch and walked to the back of the house where he slid a patio door open and went out onto the deck that looked over the yard. He took a seat on one of the chairs he'd purchased the previous weekend and stared across the yard. There was the avacodo tree.

When he'd first seen the house, he'd liked it and thought it was nice. He'd liked that there was a yard where you could actually sit back and enjoy yourself. Then he'd seen the tree. The damn avocado and after three years of being with Rory, the Gilmore's crazy ideas and thought patterns must have finally gotten to him because he'd thought it was sign. Rory liked guacamole, was the thought that had gone through his mind and he smiled as he remembered that that was the same comment she'd made when he mentioned the tree. But it wasn't a sign. It wasn't anything. Just an avocado tree.

He sat out on the deck for a long time doing nothing. Thinking about college, his family, Rory, his friends. Logan thought about the deal that had gone under and remembered how he'd received that news on his birthday. He recalled how he'd run off to Vegas with Colin and Finn and he thought back to how when he'd got home, Rory was there waiting.

God, he missed her.

Everything had seemed better when she was around, even when things were crappy, they'd seemed better. It was hard to sleep at night without her there beside him. It was strange to get up in the morning and not smell coffee already brewed, or find her stuff all over the place. His bookshelves were empty without all of her books and things. Henry looked naked without his usual drapery of Rory's stuff.

This house, that had seemed so perfect, so much like the home he'd never had, was empty without her. No matter what he did to it, all the little homey things he bought for it, without her, it was just four walls.

Depressed even more, Logan went back into the house and moved into the bedroom. His bedroom. The room that they were supposed to be sharing, the private space that would have been just theirs. His bedroom. He changed his clothes for bed and couldn't help but miss Rory's bedtime chatter. The discussions about their days, the things they needed to do tomorrow or next week.

He laid down on the bed and moved to the middle, even though when he woke up in the morning, he knew that he'd be back on 'his' side. As he lay in the dark he couldn't help but feel as if the four walls he'd hoped would be home, were now his hell.

---------------------------------------------

Wow, that's the first time that I've ever written an entire chapter without any dialogue! I don't count the e-mails as dialogue, because it's really just not the same.

So some of you may be thinking, man, he's just pathetic, but think of it this way: In his whole life the only person who'd ever told him that they loved him was Honor. Then Rory comes along and she make him happy and she loves him and he falls in love with her. She changes him, makes him want, and tells him that she'll always be there for him. Then he asks her to share her life with him and she won't. Sure he's lived with failure before, but in his whole life nothing had ever mattered so much. No one had ever mattered as much. This loss, this pain, it's something entire new and entirely unpalatable to him. So it's going to take some time for him to get past it...

There, that's my only justification for making him be so mopey.

The next chapter is starting to come together so it shouldn't be too long before I can get it up. It'll be up sometime on Monday for sure cause I know that Mother's Day is going to be a busy one for me!

:-) apalusa


	7. Unsettling the Nearly Settled

As promised here I am folks. There are a couple things on my mind this morning so please just bear with me...

I've been trying to remember if there has ever been a time in my life that I've been as upset with a television show as I am with Gilmore Girls and the current group of writers and producers that they've got... I know that I was upset when James Dean Anderson was written out of _Stargate SG-1_, but even he does occasional guest spots still (though this - the tenth season- is the last one for that particular show) and it was a gradual, easing out of the show. It wasn't two episodes before the finale "Oh hey, I'm quitting you'll never see me again!" and I was NO WHERE near as angry or just plain bothered about that as I am with the break up of Logan and Rory. It just doesn't feel right to have them separated. It doesn't feel right to have them be Logan and Rory again, instead of Rogan.

_I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

Just before I let you start: this is another shout out to all of you who have reviewed, commented, ranted or raved - thank you for your continued support. I started this story as a lethargic way for me to vent **my** anger, disappointment, disgust and just plain aggravation about the shows outcome. With the response I got after just the first two chapters it started to change in to something else. Now after seven chapters this story is no longer a personal view on how things should have turned out for Logan and Rory, it's no longer just a way to for me to feel better about their break up... Now, it seems to have taken on a life of it's own and I'm awed each day when I check for reviews and updates for my favorite stories and find that so many people are looking to me and _An Ending or a New Beginning_ to make things right. I'm not doing it for just me anymore, **I'm doing it for all of us now.**

That being said, here it is people the llllloooooonnnnnnggggg awaited 're-meet' for our favorite couple.

_Just a note for timeline purposes: this chapter takes place about 10days after chapter 6... which puts it about 5weeks after Rory's graduation._

**Chapter 7 - Unsettling the Nearly Settled**

The doorbell ringing brought Logan's concentration to a halt. He pulled back from his computer screen, a stack papers still clutched in his hand and glanced around the room as if trying to discern what the sound had been. The bell rang again and Logan realized that someone was at his door, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out who it could possibly be. He dropped the papers on the table beside the laptop and pushed up from his seat to go and see who it was.

On his way through the house he managed to trip over a pair of shoes that he'd forgotten to put away. He picked up the shoes and carried them with him to the closet that was by the door. He tossed the shoes onto the floor with a few others and looked through the peep hole in the door. And froze. Ten seconds later Logan threw the door open and faced the two smiling faces of his best friends.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Logan asked with a laugh as he gave each of the men a hand shake and then a 'manly hug.'

"We were in the area?" Finn suggested.

Both Colin and Logan raised an eyebrow to the response. "Uh huh." Logan replied as he gestured his friends through the door. "I guess I don't really care why here, I'm just happy you are."

"Good." Colin told him as they followed Logan into his living room. "I was starting to contemplate ways to murder Finn and that's always a..."

"Good time to take him on vacation." Logan finished the statement and sat down on the couch, the others following suit.

Colin nodded his agreement. "Exactly."

"You do know that I'm in the room, right?" Finn asked and made sure his tone sounded hurt. Colin and Logan only laughed again, and Finn joined them.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I could have picked you up at the airport." Logan spoke again after they'd stopped laughing.

"It was pretty late when we got in last night." Colin answered with a shrug.

"Last night?" Logan echoed.

"Yeah. We decided to head straight to the hotel and then, of course, we had to go to the bar." Colin explained.

Finn leaned over and smacked Logan's shoulder. "It's not like you could have partied with me. You, being the big working man and all." Colin laughed and Logan made a pained expression before answering.

"Hey man, I like what I'm doing."

"I know." Finn replied and his face was completely serious. "That just makes it ten times worse." Logan shook his head.

"So," Finn continued. "Are you gonna show us your place or should I pretend I need to use the bathroom and just go snoop?"

"I can show you." Logan said as he stood up, gesturing for the other's to follow him.

He took them upstairs first, briefly showing them the the three bedrooms, including his own, and the two bathrooms. Then downstairs he showed them the garage, the dining room where his work materials were still littered across the table, the den full of it's bookshelves, the living room they'd already seen and the kitchen and breakfast nook where he typically ate. It was then that Finn approached the sliding patio door.

"Oh," he cooed teasingly. "You have such pretty patio furniture!"

"Shut up Finn." Logan replied accordingly and the three friends went out on to the deck. They each settled in to one of the chairs and were quiet for several minutes.

As usual when he was in his yard, Logan's gaze was drawn to the avocado tree. He sometimes wondered why after just over a month, the one thing that instantly made him think of Rory was something that she'd never even seen. Of course the mere thought of Rory made him wonder what she was doing then and where she was. He sighed, frustrated with himself, and forced his attention back to his friends.

"It's nice here." Colin finally commented.

"The area? Or the house?" Logan asked amused, his signature smirk twisting his lips.

"Both." Colin answered after thinking about it for a moment. "It's quiet but not too quiet."

"Peaceful," Finn added. "But close enough to San Fransisco that if you want the chaos of a city you can get it."

Colin nodded in agreement with Finn's assessment and then continued. "And there's a lot of things to do in the Bay area that would keep someone like you busy on the weekends and during your down time."

"Someone like me?" Logan inquired with a raised brow.

"You like action." Finn replied.

"Doing things." Colin inserted.

"And there's hiking and biking in the area or at a distance that's not to far to drive. There's river and ocean kayaking, surfing-" Finn explained.

Colin spoke over Finn's voice to add in. "If you don't mind driving a ways down the coast."

"And a bunch of other things that will keep you going."

"Then you look at this house." Colin started. "It's nothing compared to what any of us are used to. It's small, though I'll admit it's not really that small, it's nice looking and it's got a good sized yard. You've decorated it so that it really reflects your personality without being overly masculine. At the same time, you've managed to add in those touches that make it charming and cozy."

"You've made it in to a home." Finn finished.

Logan shook his head and muttered. "No, no it's not a home." Once again Logan looked at the tree. To his mind the avocado tree was a glaring reminder of why this house would never be a home, not his. It lacked heart. It lacked Rory.

Colin and Finn looked at each other, sharing a long glance before Colin spoke.

"You seem to be settling in pretty well."

Logan's gaze shot to Colin's and then to Finn. There was something in Colin's tone that caught his attention, made him wonder. "I suppose so." He agreed hesitantly.

"Maybe you should get unsettled." Finn suggested and glanced at his watch.

Less than a minute later his doorbell rang again. Logan stared at his friends and for some reason a mixed feeling of dread and anticipation filled him. Without words Finn motioned that he should go in to get the door and Logan slowly stood. He walked through the house again and without checking to see who was there, opened the door.

Time stilled and all of the blood rushed away from his brain. He stared, dumbfounded, at Rory standing on his doorstep. He couldn't think, couldn't speak and he couldn't move.

Rory didn't know what to do. She tried to think of something smart or witty to say but nothing came to mind. Finally she just held out the small paper bag that she had in her hand and smiled weakly at him. Logan glanced at the bag and frowned slightly. After a moment he reached out and took the bag from her.

"Hi." Rory managed to say and then immediately started cursing herself in her mind. How utterly stupid could she possibly be?

Logan was staring at her again. "Hi." He replied and then because he knew he needed to look at something else for a few minutes he opened the paper bag that was now in his hands and glanced inside. For the second time that evening time stilled and all thoughts flew from his mind. He stared at the contents of the bag. It was Rory's voice that brought him back this time and he glanced back to her face.

"I, um," Rory started to say but she too seemed to be having difficulty speaking. She licked her lips and then cleared her throat before continuing. "I know that you probably don't want to see me and I don't blame you, but I had to come and tell you that I'm sorry."

"Rory..." Logan said though he had no idea what else he would have said if she hadn't cut him off.

"Please, Logan just let me say this." She begged him and when he nodded she continued. "I am sorry, not only for what I did but for how and why I did it as well. I'd thought I was doing the right thing for me, I'd convinced myself that I was, but as soon as you started walking away, I started having doubts."

"I was wrong, so wrong and for that I'm sorry."

"I don't know what you expect me to say to that." Logan told her and was surprised that he could even speak.

"I don't expect you to say anything." She replied and a sad smile graced her lips. She sighed. "For now I just wanted to tell you face to face that I was sorry. You deserve that."

"For now?" He asked.

Rory nodded and then spoke again. "I have more that I want to say. More that I need to say, but for today just letting you know that I'm sorry will be enough."

"What do you mean?" Logan asked again, for some reason he didn't understand what she was trying to tell him. To him it almost sounded as if she meant to stick around, that she was going to give him time to decide if he'd talk to her and that if and when he did, she'd be waiting.

"I'm staying at The Bay Hilton." She answered but he shook his head still not understanding. "I can't force you to listen to me Logan or to hear me out. I can't force you to forgive me and I can't force you to take me back. I submitted my resume and portfolio to the Chronicle and the Journal today."

Logan was staring again and again was drawing completely blank. Rory continued when he didn't say anything. "So like I said, I can't force you to do anything, but I can make it damned difficult for you to forget me and move on."

Having said that she leaned forward quickly and softly, briefly, touched her lips to his. Before he could respond to the kiss, or react in any way, she pulled back, turned and walked to her rental car that was parked in front of the house. Logan stood there and watched as she got in the car and drove away.

When the car was out of sight, he stepped back in to the house and closed the door. He walked back to the kitchen and dumped the contents of the paper bag on to the counter. He turned the small jar upright and shakily picked up the note.

----

_I really like guacamole. I'm in room 1104._

_I'm not going anywhere. Ace._

----

That's how Colin and Finn found him when they came in to the house a couple of minutes later. Holding the note and staring warily at the small jar of guacamole resting on the counter top. They watched him for a full minute before breaking his concentration once more.

"Logan?" Colin asked gently, concerned.

Logan looked up and emotion swirled in his eyes though no single emotion stood out.

"I could really use a couple of drinks." Logan responded to the looks on his friends faces.

A great smile spread across Finn's face. "In that case mate, I know just the place."

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Probably not how everyone expected that first run-in to occur but I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve. :-o

I think I've said absolutely all I need and/or want to say for today, so that's it, that's all...

Please review, it's fuel to my imagination and it drives my soul.

apalusa


	8. Me Too

Okay, I'm sorry. I was trying to get this chapter finished and up before the episode tonight because I wanted to have this chapter done before I got pissed off at the show again. I really did try but the words just kept coming out and my fingers kept typing. I ended up recording the episode instead of watching it because I didn't want to taint this chapter with my anger... This is a very important chapter. At least I think it is. In any case, I'm sorry to those of you I told I'd have the chapter up on Tuesday, I'm late I know, but I think this chapter is definitely worth the wait. :-)

I want to thanks once again everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and all of the new reviewers who just started reading the story and reviewed the earlier chapters, as always I'm grateful for your support of the story and I hope you continue to enjoy my work.

_I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

Now without further ado, the next chapter of _**An Ending or a New Beginning**_...

**Chapter 8 - Me Too**

It was a sunny day, though a light fog still lingered over the water out in the bay and Rory Gilmore was trying to be patient. She'd made such a great speech about not pushing him and not being able to force him to do anything, but the one thing she really wanted to do was force him to listen. She didn't really know if it would help considering that once explained, the reason that she'd turned him down and basically dumped him was to make her mother happy. If she was going to think of the absolute worst possible reason to say no to someone when they asked you to marry them, that would be probably be it. How pathetic? And how utterly stupid.

She'd made such a gigantic mistake when she'd let him walk away and she was trying to be a big enough person to face up to that. So far it wasn't working all that well. Everytime she thought about what she'd say to Logan when, or if, he'd finally speak to her, she'd ramble on and on about timing and age and work, and then she'd mentally beat her head against a door because she knew now that all she was doing was making excuses. He didn't deserve excuses, he deserved the truth and that's what she'd give him, even if it meant that he'd end up walking away again. And if he did walk away again, she'd just follow him and dog his heels. She'd threatened to stalk him once before, surely she could do it again.

So as Saturday afternoon lagged on she decided that if she was going to keep her promise and give him time, she needed to do something to keep her occupied. That's how she came to be sitting at a outdoor table of a little cafe that was right on the water front. From where she sat, she could just make out the shape of Alcatraz floating in the bay on it's island through the mist. She decided that if she had many more days to just sit around waiting for Logan to let her back in, she'd have to take one of the tours that carried people right out to the island. Afterward she'd call Lane and give her an update on how things were going and tell her all about the prision.

That idea made her think of Stars Hollow and all of the crazy townies. She smiled as she remembered Miss Patty coming over and rubbing her back as she'd cried in the square only three days earlier. After she'd cried all she could cry, Patty had taken her into the dance studio and with a few intuitive questions had managed to get the basics of the situation from Rory. Once she knew what was going on, Patty became a machine and borrowing Rory's phone had started calling people to help with what she'd called "Operation: Get Logan Back!" She'd called Finn and Colin, Juliet and Rosemary, Honor, and Olivia and Lucy.

The last two girls had immediately descended on Stars Hollow and helped Patty and Babette, who'd caught wind of Rory's breakdown and come looking to see what was going on, make all the initial plans for transportation and accommodations. Rory had called her dad, and Chris was happy to help with her with some money to pay for her plane ticket and her hotel room for a while. When she'd first explained the situation he'd been reluctant because he'd thought she'd done the right thing, but when she told him how miserable she was and that all she wanted was a chance to talk to Logan he'd agreed to help.

Then it had been a matter of convincing one of Logan's friends or his sister to tell Rory where exactly Logan was. Patty had finally managed to get Finn to tell her when she'd informed him that she had red hair. Once they knew where he was, Babette and Lucy insisted that Rory needed to think of some way to break the ice.

After many, many suggestions and Rory telling Olivia and Lucy the details of what had happened (because they'd demanded to know and then admonished her for not telling them on graduation day) the three of them and Lane, who'd managed to get away from the twins and Zach, came up with the idea to give him a note and a jar of guacamole. Lane insisted that it was quirky enough to be a gesture suitable for any Gilmore Girl and the other girls categorically stated that it was something that would get to Logan, because he'd been the one to think of the avocado tree and the gaucamole in the first place.

Rory agreed with the sentiment and the gesture itself, she worried that it might not be enough. Well, in truth, she worried that he'd just toss the jar in her face and tell her to go away. That was what she'd probably do. In fact that was basically what she'd done when Logan had pursued her forgiveness after the holidays the year before. No matter what she'd done though, Logan never gave up. And that little detail, she figured, was all she needed to give her the courage to do whatever it took to get him back.

So she'd flown to San Francisco, surprised when Colin and Finn had ended up flying with her, she'd applied at the major papers in the city and then she'd driven down to Redwood City and to the little house with the avocado tree in the back yard where Logan lived. The house he'd picked out for the two of them.

It was perfect. She thought to herself again as she remembered the way it had looked from the outside two nights before. A little two story house with a garage and a flower bed and a big yard. It was a house that just begged to be made into someone's home and Rory prayed that she'd get the chance to make it one.

All she had to do was be patient and eventually he'd come to her.

She hoped.

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Logan watched her from halfway down the street. She was sitting with her elbows on the table and a coffee mug in her hand, a slight frown on her face and her eyes out to the Bay. He wondered what she was thinking of, and why it made her frown.

It had been two days since she'd shown up at his house and given him the jar of guacamole. Two days and he hadn't been sure it was actually real, that she'd actually been there, until he'd spotted her sitting at the outdoor cafe ten minutes ago. She hadn't moved since he'd laid eyes on her.

God, she's beautiful. Logan thought as he watched her finally blink her eyes and lift the mug to her lips, taking a long sip of the coffee. He'd always known that she was pretty, how could he not, but everytime he saw her he was amazed at how gorgeous she was. He had to remind himself how it had felt when she'd told him that she couldn't marry him and how that feeling was worse when he remembered the reason why.

She'd told him at the house two days ago that she had more she wanted to say but that she wouldn't push him. She hadn't asked Finn and Colin to come to the house and talk to him for her, she hadn't even known they were there. Rory hadn't asked them to come to San Francisco with her either, though if he was honest with himself he was glad that they had. He didn't know how if he'd be able to handle facing her like this, without knowing that his best friends would be right there waiting for him if he broke down again.

Oh, he hoped that she hadn't come all this way to make him want again and then break his heart one more time. As melodramatic as it sounded, even to him, he really didn't know if he'd be able to deal with another heartbreak. After getting thoroughly drunk, then spending the next day holed up in his house thinking, Logan knew he had to hear her out. He knew that for her to be here, for her to actually admit her mistake and ask for forgiveness was hard for her. And he knew that after everything they'd been through, everything they'd meant to each other and all the pain they'd caused one another, he owed it to her to hear her out, and maybe try again.

With that final thought and the realization that he was just stalling, he pushed off the way where he leaned and started strolling toward her.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"This seat taken?" Logan asked and had the pleasure of seeing her jump. He always found pleasure in being able to surprise her.

Rory's eyes shot to his and she just stared. She'd been waiting for him to come for a day and a half, and part of her had thought that she'd have to wait forever. She nodded in response to his question but found that she wasn't able to speak quite yet.

"I figured I'd find you here." He told her as he pulled the chair across from her out and sat down.

Again she didn't speak but tilted her head in question of his statement. She swallowed at the thought that a month in California had only made him look better.

A small smirk turned up the corners of his mouth. "I checked at the hotel to see if you were in and Finn told me he'd heard you leave your room about an hour ago."

"An hour?" Rory asked with a squeak and glanced down at her watch. "I didn't realize that I'd been sitting here that long. I guess I lost track of time."

"The Bay is beautiful, isn't it?" Logan asked and he turned his face to look across the water as she had been.

Rory looked back out at the Bay and the two sat in a semi-comfortable silence for several minutes. Finally she sighed and turned back to Logan, the sound drew his attention and they locked gazes.

"Are we really going to do the whole polite chit-chat thing?" Rory asked nervously.

Logan stared at her for a moment and then asked the one question that she'd hoped he wouldn't, not so soon. "Why did you do it?"

"Why?" She repeated.

"Yeah," He replied. "I've got a pretty good idea but I think I deserve an explanation from you."

"Yes you do." She answered with a nod. Rory glanced away from him in an effort to align her thoughts and took a long drink of her coffee. As she swallowed she looked back at him. She opened her mouth and words, excuses, bubbled up in her throat but as she looked him in the eyes she couldn't say them. She licked her lips and finally, finally, told him the truth.

"When all the excuses are peeled away it comes down to one thing and for a twenty two year old, a woman who thought herself to be entirely independent and able to be self-sufficient, it's a really bad reason." She told him before voicing the actual reason. She swallowed one more time and found that her throat was now bone dry. "It was what mom wanted."

Hearing the words, especially when he hadn't actually expected to hear them from her, brought all of the pain right to the surface and he had to turn back out to the Bay to keep her from seeing it in his eyes. He let the truth sink in. He'd convinced himself that Lorelai had been the reason Rory had turned him down but he never dreamed Rory would actually see it that way. She practically worshiped Lorelai, she always had.

"And what does Lorelai think of you coming out here?" Logan asked and he didn't even bother to try and disguise the bitterness in his tone.

"She's not happy with it. At least I don't think she is." Rory admitted to him and shrugged when he glanced briefly at her with a raised eyebrow. "When I realized the mistakes that I'd made when I'd been thinking that I was doing the right thing and the things that were best for me, when I realized how she'd manipulated me by pretending indifference until she got me to do exactly what she wanted... I packed my bags, told her I was going and left. I haven't really talked to her since."

They were silent for a minute or so while Logan took in what she said and tried to make sense of it. There was something that he couldn't make sense in what she was saying. "What do you mean she manipulated you?" He asked. He'd thought that Lorelai would have just used her influence over Rory to get her to do as she wanted. The idea that she might have manipulated her own daughter to do something she didn't want to do just made him angry all over again.

"Exactly what I said." Rory snapped and then softened her voice and shook her head while she continued. "Sorry. The night you proposed I asked her to talk to me about it. I asked her what she thought I should do and I told her all the things that were going through my head, the pros and cons, the ifs and buts. She wouldn't say a word. She just shrugged her shoulders, told me to take some time to think about it and that she trusted I'd make the right choice."

Rory swallowed the anger that boiled up in her again at the thought. She took another sip of her coffee and continued. "The next night, after the ceremony, after I talked to you, she and I were moving the boxes out of the apartment and I told her what had happened. I told her everything I said, everything you said and how it had ended. She finally just smiled at me and shrugged again as if in sympathy, then said 'I think you did the right thing.'"

"We never really talked about it again after that night. I couldn't talk about it, with anyone, it just hurt too much. The other day Lane finally got the story out of me." Rory finally had a small smile on her lips. "As I told her each of the reasons that I'd come up with for why I couldn't marry you, she came up with arguements that nullified each one. As we talked it out, I finally realized that my saying no was exactly what mom wanted me to do. And by her not talking to me about it, not giving me her opinion I had to come up with what I thought it would be. After that I made my decision and I thought I'd done it for me, but I hadn't, I didn't, I did for her."

"Rory..." Logan started to say but she cut him off.

"I did and I don't even know why. Am I so desperate to make her happy? So pathetic that I do what she wants me to do without even realizing that I'm doing it for her and not me?" Rory ranted starting to get a wild, paniced look in her eyes.

Logan reached out and caught her hand, held it. "You are not pathetic." He told her firmly and her gaze locked with his again. "You love your mother Rory, there's nothing wrong with that."

"No, not in loving her. But in putting her ahead of everyone else? Of myself?" She asked.

"Okay, that's not a good thing. You won't get an argument from me on that one, but it does not make you pathetic. I let my dad force me to go to London Rory. I didn't want to go and I fought it with a half-assed effort, but in the end I went. That could have ended us just as easily as anything your mom has said or done, or in this case not said and done." He still held her hand and as he spoke his thumb rubbed back and forth over her wrist.

"How can you say that Logan?" Rory asked, nearly crying. "How can you be nice to me after what I did to you?"

_Because I love you_. The words almost came out of his mouth but he managed to hold them in. But he knew that he did and he knew that wanted another chance with her. Any pain he'd felt was worth it if in the end, he ended up with Rory. To keep himself from pulling her out of her chair and in to his arms, he pulled his hand from hers and was pleased once more to see her stiffen with disappointment.

"Because I care about you. That much hasn't changed." Logan told her. He wasn't ready to give in too soon. Besides, it might be interesting to see just what Rory was willing to do to win him back.

His words made her heart pound, nearly as hard and as fast as his touch had made it. She knew Logan well enough to know that once you were his friend, you were always his friend and he'd always stick up for you, even if he didn't particularly like you all that much anymore. Could that be all it was? He didn't want to hear her talking herself down and said what he needed to in order to get her to stop. Was it possible that he didn't love her anymore, that he couldn't love her anymore? She knew that she'd hurt him greatly, she could still see that pain in his eyes, just as she knew it still shone in her own, but was their relationship damaged to greatly to salvage?

"I have to go on a trip for a couple days." He announced when he spoke again.

"A trip?" Rory questioned. "For work?"

He smiled. "Yeah, we've got this updated net platform that we're working on and we have meetings in Seattle on Monday and Tuesday. There's this IT conference there next week so we're pitching it to a bunch of companies, hoping to find some investors and a company who wants to take on the bulk of the production."

"You sound so excited." She said to him with a smile on her face and the beginning of a twinkle in her eye. "You really like your job don't you?"

"I love it." Logan answered. "My whole life I thought that I'd end up with HPG doing the same things as my dad and grandpa. Losing a couple million dollars..." He trailed off in thought and then shrugged. "Well it was probably one of the best things that's ever happened to me."

"I'm really happy for you." Rory told him.

"I'm happy for me too."

"I'm glad that you're happy."

"Me too." He retorted and had that signature smirk on his face.

Rory rolled her eyes. "This is just the same as the 'so' conversation and that one didn't go so well either."

And they both laughed.

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"What do you think?" Finn asked when he saw Rory and Logan start laughing. He and Colin had arrived at the restaurant across the street from their friends about twenty minutes earlier when Logan had sat down at Rory's table.

Colin sighed and watched his oldest friend and the girl who'd captured not only Logan's heart but all of his friends hearts as well. "I don't know. But I really hope they can work this out."

"They love each other." Finn said as if that was the answer to all of the couple's problems.

"Yeah they do." Colin agreed and looked back at Finn. "And that's why what she did hurt him so bad Finn. She loved him and she still said no."

Finn frowned. "She did it because she thought it was the right thing to do."

"She did it because she was trying to make Lorelai happy." Colin argued.

"Okay, I'll give you that. But was Lorelai happy to see her leaving the other night?" Finn fought back.

"Well, no."

"Exactly." Finn proclaimed as if that finished the conversation.

Colin frowned. "Exactly what?" He asked even as he cursed himself for falling in with the crazy Aussie's reasoning.

"You heard what she said before she opened the door the other night, just the same as I did." Finn explained pointing his finger at Colin. "If she has to make that choice again, she'll chose Logan."

"How can you be so sure?" Colin asked. It wasn't all that surprising to Finn that Colin couldn't fathom the reason. After all, Colin's dad had been married and divorced so many times that Colin had finally stopped trying to remember the brides names and thought of them as 'bride no.X'.

"Because she's here Colin." Finn answered sounding somber and sober. "Even knowing that Lorelai hates it, she walked out that door, got on a plane, flew here, and confronted him. She's finally made the choice for her and she's not going to stop until she gets what she wants."

"She's here, and I don't question her resolve. Gilmore is freakishly stubborn sometimes. But the real question is: will Logan let her back in?" Colin said.

Finn shrugged and looked at the menu. "Of course he will."

"How do you know?" Colin pressed.

It was Finn's turn to sigh this time and he looked back across the street at Rory and Logan. "Because she's everything he's ever wanted and exactly what he's always needed. Plus, you know that look he gets in his eyes when you dare him to do something?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Now Finn laughed as he picked his menu back up again. "I caught him looking at that damn guacamole jar last night as if it had challenged him or something." Finn shook his head as he remembered. "And before I interrupted his staring contest with it, I swear I heard him mutter 'She always loved guacamole.' Rory was bloody brilliant to give him that."

"It's because of the avocado tree in the back yard." Colin told him. "Rory likes guacamole and the yard has an avocado tree. The tree is the reason Logan picked the house in the first place."

"Sometimes those two are freaks." Finn said.

"Yeah, but they're perfect for each other." Colin replied.

"And that my friend, is why both of them will walk through hell to make sure they work things out."

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There it is folks... Now that I've got the chapter out of the way, I also promised a couple people an explanation on the jar of guacamole that Rory gave to Logan in the last chapter.

I'm sure you all remember that when he proposed and Rory dragged him out of her graduation party he told her about the job, and the newspapers, and the house and the avocado tree in the backyard. An ongoing comment in this story, right from the beginning, has been "Well you do love guacamole!" which actually came right out of episode 7.21. The way I took it, or shall I say take it as I'm going to pretend that the final episode never actually exists, is that Logan was trying to show her that he wanted to give her everything... even guacamole. So in chapter 7 when she gives him the jar of guacamole it's sort of her way of saying - that everything that he's willing to give her, she's willing to give him the same.

That's just my take on it and why I did it. And truth be known, if you can't follow my reasoning, I don't know how else to explain it.

I'm going to start writing the next chapter on Wednesday and as soon as it's ready I'll post it. I don't know how long it will take me, but I'll go as quickly as I can.

apalusa :-o


	9. Seeing the Truth

Hey everyone!

I know this chapter was a long time coming and I do apologize. Truth is, this insidious monster (Writer's Block) attacked me last week and drug me off to WBH (writer's block hell). I've been trying to get away from him for days and days and days, and I've got the bruises to prove that he put up a damn good fight about letting me go.

Now I'm sure you're all going to be surprised by this chapter. I've had a lot of comments about the view of Lorelai that I've been giving in this story. Like another monster, she's been portrayed as the bad guy at the end of Rory and Logan's relationship and the consequence has been a destruction of Rory and Lorelai's relationship. When I was finally able to start writing again, I found that I wanted to put in a chapter that dealt somewhat with this issue. Rory and her mother's issues are not going to be resolved in this chapter, or right away for that matter, but I needed to show that Lorelai will _eventually_ see the error of her ways. And likewise, the mother-daughter duo will ultimately find an arrangement that works for them.

_I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

**Chapter 9 - Seeing the Truth**

Luke watched Lorelai as she sat at her table by the window looking out at the town square and the gazebo at it's center. It had been five days since Rory had left and Lorelai had been overly quiet since she'd gone. It was like all the life from her had drained out and left a shell. You'd see a spark in her eye or hear a certain note in her voice that would remind you of how she'd been before, but those characteristics that were so typically Lorelai were squashed almost as soon as they came.

He didn't know what to do to help here. He'd held her while she'd cried, until she'd fallen in to sleep exhausted. He'd fed her everyday, just so he could be sure that she was eating, and he found himself checking on her several times each day to assure himself that she was alright. The only other time he'd seen her remotely like this was when she and Rory had fought when Rory had decided to quit Yale. But even then she hadn't been this bad.

"Lorelai are you sure you don't want more coffee?" Lane asked the older woman from her seat across the table. "Something else to eat?"

Lorelai shook her head in response. After a few more minutes she finally turned and looked at her daughter's oldest friend.

"Was it really so wrong of me to want her to be happy? To want what was best for her?" Lorelai asked her voice seeped with pain and grief.

"No, it's not wrong." Lane answered with a sigh. "That's love. But is she happy without Logan? He loves her and she loves him, how is that not what's best for her?"

"They're so young, they don't know what they want or what they need." Lorelai said in a monotone voice.

"I married Zach because I love him and because I knew that he was everything I wanted and all I need. We have two beautiful boys. And I'm the same age as Rory." Lane replied.

"Lane..." Luke started to interrupt but Lane stopped him.

She shook her head but never glanced away from Lorelai. "Rory and I have always wanted different things. I wanted to be a musician and she wanted to be a journalist. We've both made good progress on those dreams and in our own ways we will both get to where we want to be. I'm happy here, my life is here in Stars Hollow and to a certain extent I can fulfill my dreams here." Lane paused to take a breath and took hold of Lorelai's hand.

"Rory was never going to stay. She was never going to marry some normal guy and be content to settle down and live here. If that's what you wanted for her, than you never should have told her to dream big." Lane finished.

"Lane I really don't think that..." Luke tried to step in and stop the coming confrontation but this time he was cut off by Lorelai.

"I never expected that she was going to stay here forever." Lorelai argued, some life coming back in to her face as her cheeks flushed. "I just don't think that Logan is the guy for her. She's just going to end up hurt or she's going to end up giving up her dreams to do what he wants her to do."

Lane shook her head again. "Lorelai when are you going to understand that what Logan wants for her, is for her to have everything she's ever dreamed of. He's not going to stand in the way of her dreams or make her give them up."

"He's going to hurt her Lane, I know he will." Lorelai told the girl.

"You mean like she's hurt him?" Lane asked.

"Oh please," Lorelai scoffed. "He's a Huntzberger. The last time they 'broke up' he found replacements for her quickly enough. I'm sure he's been just fine."

"That was a long time ago and they've both changed a lot since then." Lane said and her tone became tired, though it still contained patience.

Lorelai pointed at her and at Luke who taken a seat beside her. "You see. He's changed her."

Luke closed his eyes and shook his head. Lane just looked at her with sympathetic eyes.

"They've both changed Lorelai. They've changed each other. Most of that was just them growing up and becoming adults. I saw that much when he was here a couple months ago and you admitted as much when they were here then too." Luke added to the conversation.

"But she said no. I didn't pressure her, I didn't tell her what to do. She chose that all on her own." Lorelai pointed out.

"Lorelai." Luke said in a soft insistent tone. "We all make mistakes."

"And we both know that she didn't want to say no. She wanted to marry him, she just wasn't ready to marry him yet." Lane added earnestly.

"So what? You think that I should just let my little girl run off and get back together with that, that egotistical, self-centered jerk cause that's what she wants to do? I should just let them get married, let her live her in California and never see her again!" Lorelai ranted and started to push back from the table. She would have stood up and stormed out of the diner, but Luke grabbed on to her arm and kept her in her seat. By this point the trio had already drawn the attention of the entire diner, and the customers in the Soda Shoppe, but they were all past the point of caring.

"No." Luke answered and though the muscles under his hand relaxed, he didn't release his hold on her arm. "But then she's not a little girl anymore either Lorelai. She's twenty two years old and you can't tell her to go to her room or that's she's grounded."

Lane again laid her hand over Lorelai's on the table. "She's not running away from you, she's running to him."

At those words Lorelai's eyes filled with tears. "But she's..."

"This isn't her home anymore. It's her home town and she'll always be welcomed here, and loved, but it's not where her heart is anymore. Everyone can see that Lorelai. Why can't you?" Lane said calmly, her eyes begging Lorelai to listen, to understand.

Lorelai closed her eyes as the tears began to fall and leaned into Luke as his arms circled around her. She thought about the day that Logan had asked her permission to marry Rory and the things he'd said, the way he'd said them. She remembered the sound of Rory crying night after night, during the past 6 weeks since her graduation. She brought the vision of her daughter and Lane walking down the street, side by side, less than a week ago and recalled how she'd noted that something was different between them.

Now, too late, she could see what that 'thing' was. Lane was happy, fulfilled, content even and settled. Rory had been lost, floundering, and unhappy at the core of things, though she enjoyed spending time in town. Rory was missing her shine, that previously unidentifiable thing that had made her alive and whole. She was missing Logan. Not just physically, though that was certainly true, but the essence of her needed him to be complete.

"Lorelai." Luke whispered to draw her attention. "No matter where she goes, or who she's with, she's still your daughter and she'll always love you."

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I'm sure many of you are now disappointed to see that Rory and Logan make no appearance in this chapter! Don't fret, the next chapter couple chapters are all about them. I have started the next chapter and it's going okay... I'm still having a few issues as far as flow of imagination and the monster keeps trying to pull me back into the pits of WBH but so far I've evaded recapture. Let's keep up hope that He won't catch me again. ;-

I really appreciate all the comments that I've had for this story! I love seeing the support and 'love' that you all have for Rory and Logan and I'm extremely honored to be able to write a story that so many people like. I also want to say that I appreciate your patience with me this last week, I think I only received half a dozen PM requesting that I 'hurry up!' I promise that I'll try to get more up as quickly as I can, but will make no promises as to when that may be.

Till next time :-)  
--apalusa--


	10. One Step Forward

I know it wasn't very sporting of me to leave you hanging with Lorelai's realization that maybe she wasn't right in the way she'd handled things with Rory and her relationship with Logan, and there is a bit more in here on that, but this is mostly about Logan and Rory and where they stand on everything. I haven't got a lot done on the next chapter but I figured that I might as well put this up for now... I'm able, finally, to get back to some writing once in a while so it shouldn't be to terribly long before that is up...

I really appreciate all of you who have read and enjoyed this story and then reviewed after each chapter... Even more, I am so entirely thankful for all of you who have inquired about and/or posted notes about the chapters, the story and what was happening with me in general... I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your words of encouragement, advice, support and for every hopeful plea that something new would be coming soon.

I have not forgotten you. Nor have I forgotten Rory and Logan and the mess that was their relationship when last we saw them and the promise I made to them and all of their fans to see that they got the life that they both so rightly deserve...

_I do not own Gilmore Girls, the characters, original plot or storyline, nor anything else that was written, produced or directed by ASP or the WB/CW. I do however own my own plot and storyline, characters and point of view!_

**Chapter 10 - One Step Forward**

Logan shuffled himself in through his front door, carrying two bags and pulling his suitcase behind him. His business trip had lasted two days longer than he'd expected and though things had gone extremely well, he was tired and glad to finally be home. After dropping his bags he collapsed on the couch and sat for a couple minutes in silence. Eventually he reached over the arm of the sofa and pressed the playback button on his answering machine that sat on the end table.

There was a message from his sister, and one from Mitchum, and two from Rory. The first, she'd left on Tuesday evening, when he'd been planning on being home. She said that she wanted to take him out for something to eat because she'd found a great Thai place and for him to give her a call when he got in. The second message she'd left only that morning, and it told him that she'd gone to LA for the day with Finn.

Colin, he knew, had flown back to New York for a couple meetings and was going to be back on the weekend, but Finn had refused to go back and had convinced her to drive down the coast with him and to spend the afternoon with him. She apologized for being out of town when he got back but asked if he'd go out with her the next night for dinner.

He had to laugh but he knew why she'd called and left such a detailed and long message. She didn't want him to think that she'd left. She wanted to make sure he knew she wasn't going anywhere. He understood but at the same time he wondered if she'd really stick. He spent some time thinking about her and them, while he put his things away and made himself something to eat. After he'd settled down in bed later, he picked up the phone and called his sister back. He waited for her to answer the phone and on the third ring she finally picked up.

"Hello." She said in a breathless tone.

"Am I interrupting something?" Logan asked in a teasing tone.

"What? No!" Honor answered shyly.

Logan smirked and rolled his eyes. "I'm sure."

"How was the business trip?" She asked, effectively changing the subject.

"It was good." Logan replied with a laugh. "I think we managed to bag three different investors and made contact with a company out of San Diego that seems interested in doing production. We'll see."

"Aawww, you sound like a grown up, with all your important business stuff going on and the investor talk." Honor teased him.

"Shut up."

Honor giggled. "That mouth! What would your mother think?"

"Who cares?" Logan countered, laughing with her. "How have you been?"

"Good," She told him and he caught something in her tone that made him sit up slowly. "Oh, Logan. I'm so excited, but I'm scared too. And nervous, that's a big one."

"Honor." The name whispered between his lips. He was pretty sure where this was going and if she didn't tell him soon he was going to... well, he didn't know what, but he didn't want to find out.

He heard her take a breath, and then a second. "I'm pregnant."

Logan sagged back onto his pillow. His sister was pregnant. He was going to be an uncle. A vision of himself holding a baby came to his mind and then whisped away. He swallowed to clear his throat and attempt to control his emotion.

"Congratulations, momma." And after he spoke he heard her sniffle.

"What if I end up like her Logan?" She asked him in a whisper and even without a name, Logan knew who 'her' was.

"You won't end up like Mom, Honor. For one, you're in love with your husband. Two, you and Josh are happy together and together you'll love your child in a way that our parents would never understand." He told her in a firm voice.

Honor sniffled again when she replied. "I'll bet she thought the same thing at one time too."

"No." Logan argued and moved into a full blown rant. "Because Shira married Mitchum for his money and that's the only reason. She never even tried to be a parent to us when we were kids, Honor. Unless you plan on birthing your child and never looking at it again, except to ensure they look appropriate for an event or party, and thus letting him or her be raised by nannies and other household staff and then sending them away to boarding schools when they are older so that they don't have to be in the same house as you, there's is no possible way that you could end up like her!"

"I love you Logan." Honor whispered and Logan smiled.

"I love you too." He answered. "How did Josh take the news?"

She giggled again. "I thought for a few minutes after I told him that he was going to pass out or something. But finally he got this big grin on his face and laughed and hugged me and gave me a big kiss. He's so excited."

"See, you'll be great parents." Logan told her.

"Thanks little brother." Honor said.

"How are you feeling? And when are you due?"

"I'm due right around Valentine's Day and all in all I feel pretty good. A little more tired than usual, and I have to be careful what I eat in the mornings but other than that, I feel fine." She explained to him.

"Valentine's Day?" He asked.

"Yeah." She laughed. "I'll get a little cherub for the holiday."

Logan laughed now too, and the siblings talked on the phone for a while more before he finally said goodbye and hung up. As he settled into sleep, the picture of himself holding a baby came back to his mind but he knew, even in the fantasy, that the baby wasn't his sister's, it was his own. His and Rory's. Things weren't all worked out between them, but he knew they would be eventually and someday, someday he believed they would have that dream.

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Night had already fallen when Rory and Finn arrived back in San Francisco and their hotel. The day trip had been a good one. Eventful, though any day with Finn could be termed as such, but it managed to get Rory's mind off of the fact that she hadn't seen or talked to Logan since the previous Saturday. She had recieved an e-mail from him on Tuesday informing her that he wouldn't be getting back for a couple more days, most likely on Friday.

She was disappointed of course, she had just flown across the country to see him and he wasn't even there but she understood, especially after their conversation on Saturday at the cafe, that his job was really important to him and that he loved doing it. Business trips were something, she reminded herself, that she'd always had to expect with Logan, and his new job didn't mean that they wouldn't occur.

But she missed him.

Seeing him. Talking to him. Just being with him.

She was very grateful to Finn for convincing her to drive to LA with him. She knew that they could have flown there, or anywhere for that matter, but driving had taken as much time as actually being in LA had. They'd made pitstops along the way and Rory had taken a lot of pictures along the way, of the views, of Finn, or of herself, and she'd convinced him to eat lunch at a little hole in the wall diner off of the freeway. The food had been horrible and greasy but they'd both had a fun time trying to decide what was in Finn's salad.

The afternoon in LA had been an experience as well. Mostly for Rory. Finn had drug her from store to store, shopping for clothes for him or for her, he'd bought gifts for his younger sister and his mother. He bought Rory a coffee mug that read 'I'm an Addict' on the side. It was just a fun day and she would forever have fond memories of it.

When they got back to the hotel it was late and Rory immediately checked for any messages with the hotels messaging service. There was nothing and that disappointed her all over again because she'd hoped to hear from him but she considered that it was possible that he hadn't yet returned home. She also checked her e-mail for a message from him, or any one for that matter, and frowned over one from her mother. The subject said only 'Let's talk.'

She couldn't decide whether she wanted to open it and see what it said or delete it and ignore her mother for a while longer. She wasn't sure if she was ready to talk to her mother yet.

After debating the choices for close to ten minutes she finally clicked the button to open the letter. Slowly she read the note, and then she read it a second time to just make sure that she wasn't hallucinating.

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_Rory,_

_I know that I'm probably the last person that you want to hear from so I'll try to keep this short... I'm sorry, babe. So sorry that I couldn't see what I was doing, that I was thinking more about what I wanted and what I thought was best then considering what you might want or what you believed would be best for you. I don't want to lose you Rory. I don't want us to end up with a relationship like mine with my mother._

_You might think that I never gave Logan a chance, but I did. I wrote that letter for him, didn't I? I got you to give him another chance. Or I suppose, I got you to consider giving him a second chance. I did that Rory and I didn't like him. You were right about that, I've never liked him._

_I guess I don't really know why._

_It's just that every time I've seen him, or spent any time with him, I always feel like he's judging me. I'm the society girl that got pregnant, refused to get married and ran off with my kid. A lot of that I know was because I hated my life in society and with my parents. I can see now that he probably wasn't judging me. I don't know what he was thinking (maybe you've got an idea?) but I'm pretty sure, now, that he wasn't judging._

_I promise you that if you manage to get him to take you back, or give you a chance, that I will at least try to get to know him... mind you that will be more complicated with the two of you being on the west coast, but I'm sure we'll figure something out._

_When you're ready to talk, get in touch._

_I miss you,_

_Mom_

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Rory leaned back and away from the computer screen and rested her hands on her stomach as she stared blindly at the computer screen. Was that really all her mother could say?

_'I'm sorry that I manipulated you, though I didn't realize it. I thought I was doing the right thing. You're wrong. You're right. I'm insecure. I'll try to do what will make you happy, but chances are I won't like it. I miss you.'_

She sat there contemplating the e-mail for several minutes and then decided that she just wasn't quite ready to talk to her mother. Not about this, not about anything really. It might seem harsh, Rory could admit that even to herself, but this was something that she needed to do on her own, by herself, and she needed to do it without any input from her mom - good or bad.

From her words Rory couldn't be completely sure that Lorelai had truly seen the error of her ways. She was sure that she felt sorry, could even believe that Lorelai believed she wanted to try, but Rory didn't feel like she could reach out to her mother yet. It was too soon, she'd been hurt too badly and things with Logan were still undefined. Until she had a clear idea as to whether he was really going to give her a chance to make things right between them again, Rory wasn't sure that she could talk to her mom, or if she really wanted to.

With no further thought on the issue, Rory shut down the computer and got ready for bed. As she slid between the sheets she glanced at the clock one last time and banished the fleeting thought to call Logan before she went to sleep.

She missed hearing his voice before bed.

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Rory sat working on her computer, on an article for Hugo's online magazine, when her phone rang. Immediately, she snatched up the device, opened it and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" She said anxiously, hoping, praying that the caller was Logan.

It wasn't.

"Miss Gilmore?" a woman's voice asked her across the line.

"Yes." Rory responded pulling the phone away from her ear to check the caller id. "Yes, this is Rory Gilmore."

"Good day Miss Gilmore. My name is Linelle Campbell, I'm Marcus Andrews' assistant." The feminine voice told her. "Mr. Andrews would like to schedule an other interview with you next week sometime. I'm just working out his timetable now and was wondering if there was anytime on Tuesday that would work for you."

"Oh!" Rory managed to say as her mind went painfully blank. "Hhmmm?" She hummed as she glanced around the hotel room and snagged a bottle of water from the fridge beside the desk where she was working. She took a sip to moisten her throat and answered.

"Any time on Tuesday is good for me actually." She forced out and took another drink as her mouth was suddenly dry.

"Okay then, here, let's see. Would 10am be okay?" Linelle asked.

"Ten is great. Thank you Ms. Campbell." Rory replied.

"Wonderful. We'll see you than Ms. Gilmore." The assistant told her. "Have a nice day!"

"You too. Goodbye." Rory said then disconnected the call.

Marcus Andrews, Rory thought to herself after the call was over, is the Print Editor for The Bay Chronicle. He'd been one of the editor's that Tammy Harlin, the Editor-in-chief had snagged into her initial interview with the paper a week earlier. He was younger than the other editors and from everything that she'd since researched about the paper and it's major employees, Marcus was a man that had every intention of getting to the top of the news food chain. He was described as highly ambitious, brilliant and having amazing natural talent that he'd groomed with years of experience and his Stanford education. He was someone that Rory was anxious to get to know and would be ecstatic to work for and learn from.

Rory smiled to herself as she settled back at the computer, opened up the day planner that she had on the laptop and entered the appointment information in. A call back interview. Things were starting to look up.

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It was nearly three in the afternoon before Logan had a moment to himself to breath and even consider making a phone call. Just as he was reaching for the phone, his intercom beeped and his secretaries voice filled the room.

"There is someone here to see you Mr. Huntzberger." Cecilia said in that monotone voice she used when she was annoyed, angry or flustered in any way.

Logan flipped his appointment book open, looking to see if he'd missed an appointment. "I don't have any thing scheduled, do I?' He asked when he saw that his book showed some free time.

"No, sir. The gentleman doesn't have an appointment." Logan could hear the disapproval in her voice. It was a tone that he'd been raised on.

"Does he have a name?" Logan was sure that the secretary would have laid in to him, snapping at him for using sarcasm with her but she only continued in the same flat, and yet somehow expressive voice.

"It's Mr. Morgan again." Cecilia answered and Logan's grin spread quickly across his face.

"Send him in then Cecilia. And hold my calls for the next 45minutes please." He told her, happy that Finn had stopped by to see him. The door to his office opened, even as he finished giving his instructions to the woman. "Unless it's a Ms. Gilmore, than send it through. I've been waiting on that call."

Finn raised his eyebrows at Logan. Once his friend had disconnected the voice link to the secretary he chuckled. "And does the estimable Cecilia know who Ms. Gilmore is?"

"No, of course she doesn't." Logan answered with his own chuckle and roll of the eye. "But I'm sure if Rory calls, she'll give her name."

"You know, you could call her yourself." Finn pointed out.

"I am also aware of that." Logan retorted to Finn's not so subtle dig, that he knew that Logan hadn't called. "In fact, I was just about to do that when I was interrupted by Cecilia and her oh, so joyous proclamation that you'd decided to visit the grown up table today. And as soon as you leave, I am going to call her. She wanted to go to dinner tonight and I wanted to make sure that she didn't make any other plans, thinking that I'd ditched her."

Finn watched Logan during his rant and though he made faces at his best friend's tones, Finn was happy that Logan was going to call Rory. Happy that he wanted to go to dinner with her that night, enough that he was worried that she'd make other plans if she didn't hear form him soon. Happy to see the look of, well, happiness on Logan's face for the first time in a long time. When Logan finally finished, Finn stood again and started for the door.

"In that case," Finn said as he gripped the handle and pulled the door open. "I'll talk to you later. Or tomorrow."

"Finn." Logan laughed and he stood from his seat and came around the desk as Finn paused in the door way. "You don't have to go, it can wait a couple more minutes."

Scoffing, Finn replied. "It could, but it doesn't need to. I only stopped by in the first place, to tell you to call her. She's been antsy all week." Logan smiled at his words. "Just call her. I'll talk to you later." And he walked out of the office, pulling the door closed behind him.

Logan stared at the door where one of his oldest and best friends just disappeared. Finn had always been strange, and he'd always liked Rory, but he was truly acting strange with the whole situation.

Shrugging off the distraction, Logan settled back in his chair and picking up the phone, dialed the number for Rory's hotel and then asked to be connected to her room when the desk clerk prompted him. He rolled his shoulders while he listened to the phone ring. And ring. And ring.

Holy Hell. Logan muttered to himself. If it's not one thing it's another. Just as he was about to hang up the phone Rory came on to the line, winded and out of breath.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Still up for some dinner, Ace?" Logan asked with a smirk, even though she couldn't see it.

Her response was quick and exactly what he'd anticipated. "You know me. I can always eat."

"Are we still going to hit the Thai place that you found?" Logan inquired. While he waited for her voice again, Logan imagine that she was making that face that she always made when she was trying to decide what to eat. Apparently she'd found an other new restaurant that she wanted to try.

"Well, we could do that or I spotted this Italian place down on the water front. They're supposed to have really good manicotti, and you know that I like a good manicotti."

He smiled. "You pick and I'll pick you up at seven?"

"Sure. Once I decide do you think I should make reservations? Never mind. You don't even know which places I'm talking about. I'll call, if it sounds like we'll need them, I'll make the reservations."

"Sounds like a plan." He replied.

"I'll see you at seven?" She asked and for the first time during the conversation, her tone became shy.

"Yes. See you in a few hours, Ace." Logan answered her and hung up the phone after he'd heard her farewell response.

In her hotel room Rory hung up the phone as a goofy, pleased smile spread across her face. He was going to go on a date with her. He was going to give her the chance to make things right. He hadn't actually said that, but there'd been something about the tone of his voice. the confidence in it maybe, that made her believe he would.

The day just kept getting better.

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Well there it is... A new chapter. I have started writing some of the next chapter but it is no where near finished right now. I do hope that it won't take to long, but I will make no promises as to when exactly it will be up. All I can promise, is that I will post it as soon as it is ready.

Thanks, and PLEASE review.

:) apalusa


	11. In Leaps and Bounds

So I've been busy with a multitude of things for the past (long, long) while - primarily my kids and family, and getting my first novel finished. It's no excuse for leaving this story hanging without a conclusion for so long, especially when I'd started it as a means to give Logan and Rory, and Gilmore Girls to a certain extent, a proper series ending. I certainly never intended to go on hiatus with this story, or my other ones. I had hoped to finish them up before I got crushed under the responsibilities and work load of getting a novel written, queried and submitted to publishing houses... but it didn't happen that way. I got into writing the novel and everything else, writing-wise, fell to the way side. Now this month I'm doing NaNoWriMo and last night I needed to put my mind onto a different project for a while. And I found the first 100 or so words to this chapter that I'd started way back when.

So for all those who've read this story from the beginning, for everyone who reads it for the first time now, and especially for all those who've sent me periodic e-mails over the last 2 1/2 - 3 years asking if and when I was going to take this story further - this chapter update is for you. I hope that you like it and that it was even remotely worth the wait. This story in particular gained me a lot of interest in my writing, right from the very beginning there was an amazing number of people who read, reviewed and enjoyed what I was doing with it. I hope you readers are still out there and I hope that you'll still like what's happening in my world of Rory and Logan. This story is actually nearly done (I never intended for it to be as long as either _Road to Heaven _or _Best is Yet to Come_), there are only 1-3(max) chapters left. I can't promise that I'll post anything more before the end of November but as soon as I've got the next chapter ready, I'll put it up. I am determined however to finish this story before Christmas this year so... Fingers crossed.

_I don't own anything in the Gilmore Girls universe beyond this plot. GG is the work of ASP, the WB, CW and the writers and producers who worked for them... _

**Chapter 11 - In Leaps and Bounds**

She was going to be late.

She'd changed her outfit three times in the last 18 minutes and as she looked at the little jean skirt and lilac colored peasant shirt she was currently wearing, she knew that in a matter of minutes it was going to be four times. The problem, was that she didn't know what to wear because she didn't know what, exactly, she wanted the outfit to say.

"I made a mistake but I love you, please, say it will be okay." Maybe.

Something more conciliatory. "I'm willing to do anything to get you to take me back."

Or a desperate, pleading, "Please say you still love me?"

A far from innocent "Take me home with you tonight, I miss you."

She picked up her cell phone as she stared at the mirror and then glanced around the room at the scattered contents of her suitcases, and shopping bags. She dialed and waited for an answer while she moved towards one of the bigger piles and started rooting.

"'ello." The voice of her savior came over the line.

She paused and then took a deep breath. "I don't know what to wear."

"Rory? What do you mean you can't find anything to wear?"

"It has to be the perfect outfit. One that tells him everything that is too hard to say and everything that I feel. It has to be perfect and I can't find anything that's right, which is so far from perfect that I can't even describe how far it is. The black top is demure but the blue is too skanky. The lilac, which is what I have on right now by the way, is too babyish and-"

"Rory. Take a breath. We'll figure this out. And trust me I'll find an outfit that Logan will love."

"It has to be perfect Finn." She emphasized.

He laughed. "It will, love, just come and let me in and I'll find something and have you ready in less than five minutes." She mumbled something that he heard through the door and swung it open at the same moment he flipped his phone shut. When he saw what she was wearing, he shook his head and turned her around by the shoulders and led her back into the room, the door gliding closed as they moved away from it. "But it's definitely not that one, beautiful."

"He's going to be here in less than five minutes Finn." Rory told him.

"Ye of little faith." Finn teasingly grumbled as he started looking through the chaotically tossed around clothes. It took two minutes of rooting and glancing back and forth between an outfit, some shoes and her but he finally handed her the clothes, kissed her on the forehead and practically skipped towards the door. "You'll knock him dead, love."

"Thank you Finn!" Rory shouted to him as she bolted to the bathroom to change, again.

"Have a good night and I'll see you tomorrow." Finn shouted back as he backed out the door and pulled it shut. As he turned to go back to his own suite he practically ran into Logan, who was looking at him curiously, one eyebrow raised.

"Clothing issues." Finn answered the unvoiced question of what he was doing there. "She just needed a little assistance."

"Ah." Logan replied knowingly and checked his watch, for what was probably the twentieth time in three minutes.

"Give her a minute or two to finish up and calm down a bit, you knock right now and she might just have a heart attack."

"Finn." Logan said and Finn stopped his loose limb stroll down the hallway to his own room. Something in Logan's voice told him that he was being serious and that maybe he should pay very close attention. "I'm doing the right thing, right? Giving this another chance, giving her another chance?"

Serious indeed. Finn stuck his hands in his pockets and surveyed his best friend. Logan's clothes were casual yet dressy, his posture was tense though and his hair showed signs of having had fingers run through it, repeatedly. He sighed, thinking that it was really a good thing that most people took him to be an utter fool because his friends really took a great deal of work. "Do you still love her?" Simple question, simple answer and one that Finn had no doubt of.

"You know that I do Finn, but is that really enough?" Logan countered. "I know that she loves me, I knew it when I asked her to marry me but it wasn't enough to make her say yes."

"You should know by now that there was more to her reasoning than whether or not she loves you." Finn pointed out.

"I do know that. I'd mostly figured that out that same afternoon." Logan answered honestly. "But whatever her reasons Finn, or her excuses, she still said no."

"She wants to be with you Logan, that was never an issue." Finn said with a shake of his head. "She just wasn't ready to say yes to marriage as soon as she graduated. She's not ready to say yes to marriage right now either, even though I think she would say yes if you told that was what you'd require in order to take her back."

"I want her to say yes because she wants to marry me as much as I want to marry her. I don't want her saying she'll marry me just to appease me, or to get me to take her back or whatever." Logan told him hotly. And the words, even as aggravated as they came out, were music to Finn's ears. "This is _Rory_, Finn. I need her to need me, like I need her. It sounds-"

"Like you know what you want. And that you know what you need from her and from the relationship. Maybe the ultimatum you gave her at graduation was rooted in that? Like you needed the confirmation that she was in the same place you were and that you were both looking and walking in the same direction?" Finn questioned.

"That's the thing though. When I asked her to marry me, I didn't have any doubts that we were in the same place - that we both wanted to be together, that we wanted to end up married." Logan replied but the heat was gone from his voice and it was shaded again by desolation and doubt. "It didn't cross my mind until after the fact, after she'd said no, after she'd given the ring back and I'd walked away, that maybe she hadn't been thinking along the same lines as me and that marriage and us being together wasn't what she'd been envisioning when we talked about our future."

"I've thought about marrying you since before you went to London."

Her voice was soft but the pain that filled it made more impact than if she'd screamed at the top of her lungs. Logan and Finn both turned from where they stood half way between the doors to her room and Finn's. She'd changed into the outfit that Finn had selected and the dusty rose color of her top matched the blush in her cheeks and the denim skirt with flirty sandal heels showcased her legs. She was so beautiful that it took Logan's breath away and made his heart hurt just seeing her.

"It was that dream, that fantasy that played in the corner of my mind every night when we'd go to sleep beside each other. It was there every time we argued over the paper or who got to shower first before we'd go to school or work or out for dinner." Her smile was sad when she looked at him, pulling the hotel room door closed behind her as she came out and walked toward them. "It was always there. I don't know why I let myself get so confused. Or why I allowed myself to question everything that I'd dreamed of for us. You were offering me everything that I'd wished for on a silver platter, and maybe that's what scared me most, that it seemed to easy."

She stopped in front of him and looked him in the eye. She'd told herself over and over while he'd been out of town that she'd be ruthlessly honest with him from now on. That after hurting him, hurting them, that they both deserved that much. "When I made the choice I did, I honestly thought that I was making it for me. I didn't really say no at first, remember. I said that I couldn't. It wasn't until later, until hours and days and weeks went by that I was really able to start thinking about why I couldn't and why 'couldn't' became 'no,' instead of a 'not yet' or something else along those lines."

"I don't know if I'd have accepted 'not yet' any better than I did that 'couldn't,' Ace." Logan admitted and he too wore a sad smile. "I needed you and maybe Finn's right, maybe that's why I forced the ultimatum instead of trying to talk you into it or talk to you about it. Everything in our lives was changing, I needed something to be stable, something that wasn't going to disappear. I just... needed you."

They stood there in the hallway of the hotel and they stared at each other. Neither paid all that much attention to the fact that Finn was still standing there, listening to everything they said. Neither cared that they were saying things that were private and things that they'd normally never have let another person hear, ever. They stood there face to face and finally said, forced themselves to say, the things that needed said.

"I needed you too Logan. I needed to know that you weren't just going to walk away the first time things got tough. That history wouldn't keep repeating itself, over and over again, and that any time there were problems with work, or between us, that you wouldn't take off, or disappear, or refuse to talk to me about them." Rory cried softly, a few tears escaping from the corner of her eyes. "I needed to know that we would make things work. That in a radically changing environment, with new jobs and a new city and a new home, that we'd be able to count on each other to, hhmm, to do that."

"It wasn't that I didn't trust you though, or want you, or love you. I just didn't want to make promises to you that I couldn't be absolutely sure that I could keep." She finally finished still in the same soft tone she'd first started with.

"We don't have a crystal ball though Rory. We can't really know if the promises we make today are ones that we're going to be able to keep in 20 years. Your family life - your mom and Dad, your mom and Luke, even Richard and Emily, should tell you that. Just like my parents relationship, or non-relationship, tells me. The promises you give, the vows you take, you either make those with every intention of keeping them or you're not getting married for the right reasons." Logan tells her and closes the distance between them to frame her face with his hands. "Keeping your word whether it's personal, or it's business, takes hard work. You taught me that. I don't know if every promise I make you is one that I'm going to be able to keep for the rest of our lives. I do know that I'm always going to try to though."

Rory closed her eyes and more tears seeped out. Logan used his thumbs on her cheeks to wipe the them away. She brought her hands up to his wrists and held on. She took a couple of deep breaths, breathing in the scent of him and finding her composure and balance.

"Making the choice you did wasn't just about doing what Lorelai would have wanted, was it?" Logan asked her and his voice was comforting and curious. Rory's hands tightened on his wrists slightly. "It was about not making the same mistakes that she has, wasn't it?"

"She was engaged to one of my Chilton teachers, when I was in high school. She called it off, literally, the day before the wedding. And then the whole thing with Dad and then Luke and then Dad and now with Luke again." Rory shook her head and finally opened her eyes and looked into his. "And then there was what happened with Dean."

"Rory, I would never -" Logan started but she interrupted him.

"I doubt that Dean thought that he would cheat on Lindsey when he married her either, but the fact remains that he did and that he had doubts about his feelings for her, even before the wedding. I don't doubt that I love you, or that you're the one that I want. I just," Rory ends on a gusty sigh.

"You're scared." Logan guessed, finally able to read the emotion that was behind her twisted logic and rationalizations.

"Of course I'm scared! We're talking about the rest of our lives!" She burst out in exclamation.

Logan nodded but added, "We've discussed that before though, and you didn't seem scared or nervous about it then."

"Because you're _you_, Logan. When we talked about it before I didn't think that you were actually contemplating us getting me married, or asking me to marry you already. I might have been thinking along those lines but I never considered that you were already too. I mean, jeez, Logan, it took you months to figure out that you wanted just me, that you wanted to be my boyfriend."

"That's not entirely true." Logan cut it.

"And it was only when I was ready to walk away that you made the jump and told me that you were willing to commit. I guess I always just figured that eventually I'd have to bring up marriage too." She admitted to him.

"So you're saying that I blindsided you?" Logan asked with a smirk on his face.

"Yes!" Rory replied and nodded emphatically. "Absolutely."

"So what you really mean, in your Gilmore way, is that you really _do_ want to marry me." Logan said conversationally, suddenly feeling very optimistic and very happy.

"Logan, there are still-" And he cuts her off again.

"But that you want to have a long engagement."

Rory blinked and looked at him. Her lips pursed and her brows furrowed into her 'thinking' expression.

"What?" She asked.

"Just because we get engaged doesn't mean that we have to get married right away. Honor and Josh were engaged for more then nine months." Logan pointed out. "Finn's sister was engaged for nearly two years before she and Drew finally got married. And I'm sure that I could name some more if you gave me a couple minutes to think about it."

She blinked at him again. Staring at him in thought and with a truly dazed, curious expression on her face.

"You'd be okay with that?" She whispered.

Logan chuckled silently and leaned forward till his forehead rested on hers. "Ace, I want to marry you. I don't care if we do it next week, or next year, or 5 years from now. I just want to know that you want to be my wife and that you want me to be your husband. In that someday, that's not hypothetical in nature, or just a dream or fantasy."

"God, I am so stupid." Rory muttered.

"I think we both are." Logan agreed. "Sometimes more than others."

Rory pulled her back slightly and looked in his eyes. Finally she said quietly. "Logan."

"What?" He responded automatically and in the same furtive voice.

"I don't think I really want to go out for dinner anymore." She answered boldly. She knew what she wanted, she'd flown across the country to try and get it after all, so there was no reason to be mishish or coy.

Logan's smile came sharp and fast but before he could respond, Finn's voice cut into their bubble. "I think that's my cue that I can leave. The hall, the hotel, the city."

"Oh! Finn you can't leave yet." Rory told him in a rush. Then blushed when she realized what it sounded like she said and rolled her eyes at both the guys expression of surprise. "I meant from the city, you pervs."

Both of the guys started laughing but it was Finn who managed to ask, "Why not?"

"Because," she answered, dragging out the word. "I have a second interview with Marcus Andrews at the Bay Chronicle on Monday afternoon and when I talked to his assistant again today, when she called me back to change the appointment we'd made for Tuesday when we talked yesterday, she told me that they'd be able to let me know one way or the other after the interview. So I'm either going to want to celebrate or wallow on Monday night."

"You've been here for a week and you've already got a second interview at the Chronicle, with Marcus Andrews' no less?" Logan exclaimed with a huge smile on his face. Finn wore a matching expression of happiness. "Didn't I tell you that you'd find something out here that would be awesome!"

Rory rolled her eyes again and then laughed when Logan pulled her into his arms and held on tight.

When he loosened his hold, he pulled back until he was looking in her eyes again. "You're really going to move here aren't you?" And she melted inside and her smile was soft and filled with happiness.

"It didn't take me nearly as long to realize that nothing I accomplished would be as great if I didn't have you by my side to share it, as it took me to figure out that I'd made a colossal mistake." She told him, again giving him the unvarnished truth.

"I love you." He said the words straight out for the first time since before she'd graduated and then he touched his lips to hers.

"Now that's really my cue to get out of here." Finn said as he turned at walked down the hall. But neither Logan or Rory heard, as they were focused so entirely on one another. On the sensation of their lips pressing against each others. On the taste of each others mouths.

"I'm really not that hungry either." Logan admitted when they pulled back the next time.

"How about we just stay in?" Rory asked.

Logan shook his head and smiled. "How about we just go home?" And she smiled.

_**Hope you liked it!**_

_**Let me know either way...**_


	12. Cinnamon Bun Distractions

I'm back again with another chapter and with a few more surprises. At the end of the last chapter it seemed as though Rory and Logan's path to happiness was laid out before them, obstacle free. But not everything is quite what it seems. Or at the very least, everything isn't as easy as it appears.

So for everyone who's been waiting to see what happens next this chapter is for you. **And to everyone that read and commented on the last chapter (and the rest of the story for you first time readers!) I just want to say thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this story. ** As I've said before, I started AEoaNB as a way to give Logan and Rory the ending they deserved, the life they deserved. My life got a little scrambled along the way and my writing here on FanFiction got pushed aside, but when push comes to shove, I'm giving Rory and Logan their story.

Keep reading. Keep reviewing. Keep bugging me updates. And I'll keep writing, as much as I can.

_**I don't own Gilmore Girls: the characters, the plot, the places... I borrow them from time to time but in the end they still belong to ASP, WB/CW and the producers, writers and cast! (who managed to screw things up right at the end of a great series!)**_

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Chapter 12 - Cinnamon Bun Distractions**

Logan walked in the front door of the house in Redwood City and kicked the door closed behind him as he juggled his suitcases and the gift bag he held. The gift was a bribe, blatant and undisguised, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to have something to offer after having to extend his business trip to Albuquerque by nearly a week.

"Ace! You here?" He shouted as he dropped his bags near the base of the stairs.

There was no immediate response but he could here chatter from the kitchen. The small counter TV maybe, or the radio.

"Rory!" He tried again.

"In the kitchen!" She shouted back in a vaguely distracted tone. One that, considering the room she said that she was in, alarmed him slightly. He made his way quickly toward the kitchen but slowed at the door way. She sat in front of the stove on a chair and was looking in the window to the oven.

"You're not trying to cook again, are you?" He asked with no little amount of concern, remembering her last attempt at cooking without proper supervision.

"No, I am not cooking." She replied with irritation. But despite her claim, she didn't turn her attention from the oven window.

He walked closer and sat the gift bag on the counter with a slight thump. "Then what exactly are you doing?"

"I'm baking." She told him, as though that explained everything and as though it made any sense at all.

"Oh, well, I can see the difference." He said with a wry tone and smirk. Then lifted his eyebrow in question. "What are you baking?"

"Cinnamon buns." She admitted and finally looked at him, very briefly, before turning back to the oven.

"Why are you making cinnamon buns?" He asked and really he was curious because even when he was home and she wanted them, she always insisted that they go to a cafe in town because she claimed they were the absolute best cinnamon buns that she'd ever eaten. Any where.

"Because I was talking to Lane earlier." She told him, again as if that simple statement explained everything.

He waited for more. And waited. Finally he sighed because she was still staring in the oven and paying very little attention to the fact that after two and a half weeks, he was finally home.

"Ok, I'll ask the obvious question." He sighed. "Why did talking to Lane make you decide to bake cinnamon buns?"

"Because she was making them and she was going on and on about how good they were and how having cinnamon buns made her feel at home."

Again, he waited.

"And I was missing you and thinking about Stars Hollow." She admitted quietly.

"And about your mom." Logan suggested in a likewise soft tone.

"No!" Rory denied quickly and gave a decisive shake of her head before turning and looking him fully in the eye again. "No, I wasn't thinking about mom, not really. Just everything that I left there, I guess."

"It's okay to miss 'everything' Rory." He told her as he squatted down beside her chair. "Even your mom."

She glanced back into the oven and sighed. Then she turned to him again and placed her hand on the line of his jaw. "You're really home."

"I'm really home." He agreed softly and leaned forward to gently kiss her lips. "Sorry it took so long."

"You've got to do what you've got to do." She told him with a small shake of her head and rested her forehead against his. "I missed you though."

"I missed you too." And he kissed her again. "But really, why the cinnamon buns?"

"She said that they were easy, and good, and I just felt... I don't know, like doing something different." Rory admitted.

"Last time you tried to make something we had to leave the windows open for two days, airing the house out. And then have a cleaning service come do a once over." He reminded her with a chuckle.

Rory blushed at the remark. "That's because you distracted me and I didn't hear the timer going off."

"That's what you said at the time," Logan teased. "But I really don't remember hearing the timer at all and we were only in the next room."

"Well by that point I'm sure I was as much a distraction to you as you were to me." She huffed in irritation.

"I heard the smoke alarm easily enough." He pointed out.

"And if you hadn't dragged me down to the floor in the dining room, I'm sure we would have smelled the smoke before even the smoke alarm caught it." She argued. It'd been so long since they'd been able to sit together and just argue about something, even something silly.

"I still say that you didn't set the timer." He told her, just to get a rise out of her.

She didn't take the bait in quite the way he expected though. She just rolled her eyes and turned back to watching the oven. Though she kept her hold on his hand.

"Well, I set it this time, so kindly wait until after I take them out of the oven before you begin to ravish me." The pert tone made him laugh. "And you could give me my gift. You did, after all, promise me that you'd be home 5 days ago."

Logan stood up and kissed the top of her head before reaching over and grabbing the gift bag from the counter behind her and dropping in into her lap.

Rory dug through the tissue paper and finally pulled out a coffee mug, from someplace in Albuquerque, and then took a little oddly wrapped gift out of the cup. As she tore through the paper she glanced up to see Logan smirking in amusement at her giddiness, and she stuck her tongue out at him. When she finally had the paper unwrapped from around the bundle, she just frowned at it.

"Coffee beans?" She asked in confusion.

"Chocolate covered coffee beans." He explained. "I remember you telling me that story about you and your mom eating way to many of them that one time and how you thought they'd be much better in moderation. Hence, a little bag."

She tried to keep her expression bland. He really was too sweet sometimes and now that he'd finally moved past trying to make grand gestures for forgiveness, or for anything, when he did get her gifts they were always so... sweet. And all the more amazing for it.

"I can't believe you remember that." She said in true amazement.

"I remember everything you tell me."

She raised her brow as she looked at him.

"Okay maybe not everything, everything, but I remember all the important everythings." He amended his claim.

"And my telling you about mom and I eating a pound of chocolate covered coffee beans and then being buzzed for two days was one of those important things?" She asked.

"Well it was entertaining." He suggested.

She smiled at him. "I really do love you." He smiled in response.

She was about to say something more when the oven timer went off and she jumped up off her seat, setting aside the mug and beans, and pulled on oven mitts. Logan pulled the chair out of the way and took it back over to the table. He moved back over towards Rory and leaned against the counter as he watched her pull the cinnamon buns out of the oven and then fuss with them for a few minutes drizzling icing over tray of hot buns. It was then that he noticed the prepackaged icing and realized what it was that she'd actually made.

"Pillsbury?" He asked with amusement.

"So?" Her tone was defensive now.

"Nothing," he told her with a shrug of his shoulders. "I was wondering why there wasn't flour all over the kitchen."

"Shut up." The response was short and to the point and only made Logan laugh again. Which, of course, resulted in Rory smacking his chest and him taking advantage of her touching him to pull her to him and doing exactly as she'd told him to. Ravish her.

Later that evening Rory and Logan sat at the small table on their back deck and ate some pasta for dinner. They talked about Logan's business trip and how it had gone for the company, they discussed Honor's upcoming visit (the next weekend) and their plans to go to Connecticut the next month for Rory's birthday. Rory told him about all the gossip she'd heard from her Grandmother when she'd talked to her the day before and from Lane earlier in the day. She was just getting started on some story about Kirk when Logan remembered that she'd been keeping something from him, with the teasing promise that he could find out as soon as he was home.

He leaned across the table and grabbed the hand that was holding her fork, stopping it halfway to her mouth. "You never told me about the article."

She smiled and it was a teasing smile. "I wondered when you'd remember that."

"You've kept me pretty distracted since I walked in the door." He pointed out.

"True." She admitted with pursed lips.

"Well?" He stressed the word and drew it out.

"It's going to be front page on Sunday morning. Above the fold." She told him and the smile on her face bloomed right before his very eyes. Within seconds he was out of his chair and pulling her from hers and into his arms. And kissing her soundly in congratulations.

"I told you they'd be stupid not to put it on the front page." He said with gusto and his voice was so filled with admiration and love that she blushed from his attention.

"You're biased." She tried to play it off as less than it was.

"And you're far too humble." He pointed out.

"Anyone could've written the article Logan, I was just lucky that I got it."

He scoffed at her attempts to brush off his praise, and the recognition that she was achieving at work. "No one could have told that story the same way that you did. You've always had a way of reaching into the meat of a story and pulling out the guts. And you've always been able to make anyone and everyone interested in even the most banal of assignments." She blushed even more from his praise. "Did you tell your grandparents? Your dad? Lorelai?"

"I told Grandma yesterday when I was talking to her. She must have told Grandpa as soon as she hung up the phone because he e-mailed me within the hour to tell me that I had better send them a copy. And somehow Dad found out too cause he called last night and said that if he didn't have to go to an event with his mother on Sunday afternoon he would bring GiGi over for the weekend, just so that he could get a copy for himself. He wouldn't let me get off the phone until I promised to send one to him. And he made me promise to send one to mom too. Said that if nothing else, showing her that I'm doing so well professionally might make her rethink some of her opinions about my being out here." Rory explained in one great Gilmore Girl rant.

"We both know her problem is more about your being here with me then it is about being in California." Logan pointed out.

"Logan," She wanted to deny the claim but she couldn't because, of course, he was right. Whatever problems her mother had with the entire situation, they were firmly rooted in the fact that Rory was in California _with_ Logan. She sighed. "I'm sorry that she's still being so stubborn about this. I wish she wasn't."

"I won't pretend that having her hate me and hating the fact that you chose to come to California with me doesn't bother me some. But I'm used to parental disapproval and disdain. This whole situation with your mom, it's old hat for me." Logan brushed a kiss to Rory's forehead and then they both sat back down to continue eating, and talking. "What makes me mad is that she's hurting you Ace. She knows she's hurting you, she's doing the same kind of thing to you that Richard and Emily did to her, and she doesn't care. Or if she does care, she's not making any attempt to fix things."

"As far as she's concerned, there's only one way for me to fix it." Rory said and they both knew what that 'one way' was, and neither of them was willing to give it to her.

"There has to be something we can do to make her feel better about all of this Rory." Logan suggested.

Rory rolled her eyes and sighed. It wasn't the first time in the last three months that they'd talked about the situation with her mother. In her opinion, the topic came up far too often considering Lorelai's unchanged stance. It wasn't the first time that Logan had made the same suggestion either. But they both knew what her mother wanted and both knew it was impossible. Six weeks apart had taught them they needed to be together. Lorelai just couldn't come to grips with the idea that Rory wasn't going to be letting go of her dreams by being with Logan, or the fact that she couldn't be happy without him in her life. As far as her mom was concerned, happiness wasn't dependent on having a man in your life, it was having the two Gilmore Girls together.

It was driving Rory crazy that no matter what she said to her mother, no matter how many times they argued about it, or how many times Logan tried to talk to her, she just wasn't willing to be convinced that Rory being with Logan was the right thing for them. Rory couldn't understand why Lorelai had made such a complete flip in perspective and why she wouldn't give ground, even an inch.

Lane had told Rory about the conversation that she and Luke had with Lorelai just after she'd left for California. She'd told Rory that she had thought that her mom was starting to come around to the reality of the situation and that she might be more understanding. Rory concluded from what Lane told her that Lorelai must have sent her that first e-mail just after the three of them had talked. Since then though, something had changed.

Rory could admit that the most drastic change happened after she had sent for the rest of her things and informed her mom that she was moving in with Logan and had gotten a job. Lorelai had scoffed, muttered that Logan had probably convinced the editor to give her the position and told Rory to have someone come and pack up what she wanted. In retaliation Rory had asked Sookie and Luke to pack absolutely all of her things and had asked Chris to arrange the shipment. It was immature, yes, but it made the point to Lorelai that she was alone in her beliefs on the situation. Of course it had also driven in the point, to Lorelai, that Rory really wasn't going to be coming back.

Since then things had only devolved further. Unlike when Rory had taken the semester off from Yale, she made a point of calling Lorelai once a week and telling her about how things were going. Lorelai never said a lot, besides making sarcastic comments about the things that Logan and Rory did, she never made any effort to tell Rory anything about life in the Hollow, and she never initiated the calls. Rory didn't want to let go of her bond with her mother but it had gotten to the point that she dreaded making the weekly phone call, and after practically monologuing the entire 'conversation' each time she would hang up in tears.

At first she'd tried to hide her upset from Logan, but after finding her crying more then once after a call with her mom, he'd made her promise not to make the calls unless he was there with her. Or if he couldn't be there, that someone was. When he'd left on his last business trip she had invited Rosemary and Juliet to come and visit when she'd be making the call, and they had informed him that the call had ended with Rory's usual breakdown. Both Rory and Logan had thanked their friends for making the trip and being there. Of course Logan had ended up being gone longer then expected and she hadn't made the last week's call.

Her grandparents, Dad, Lane, Sookie and even Luke tried talking with Lorelai. They tried to understand what her problem with Logan and with Rory being in California was, but none of them were able to make any head way with her. All Lorelai would say was that she was going to take the "moral high road" with the situation and stay out of it. That being with Logan and moving to California were Rory's choices and that she could deal with and live with the consequences on her own. None of them could convince her that Logan and Rory were happy together, or that they were doing well together. Lorelai had her opinion, her beliefs, and her "moral high road," and she wasn't willing to make any adjustments.

Despite the problems with Lorelai, Rory and Logan were happy. The situation was certainly a blight but it wasn't putting any strain on their relationship. After the events surrounding her graduation, Rory had made the realization that her happiness didn't need to be dependent on her mother's. And that she could even be happy without Lorelai's approval of her actions, which was something that she'd never wanted to consider or admit before.

From Logan's perspective, Lorelai's stance was a problem - he knew that Rory wasn't making decisions based on what Lorelai expected or even wanted anymore, but he knew how much Rory was hurting and he didn't like it. He didn't want to make it worse. Which is why three months after Rory followed him to California and San Fransisco, three months after they'd decided to pick up the pieces of their relationship and keep going, three months after Rory had once again moved in with him, he still hadn't proposed again. He knew, this time without any doubts because they'd talked about it so much, that when he asked her to marry him, Rory would say yes this time. And he worried that when she said yes, it was going to create a gap too far for them all to reach across with Lorelai. Much as he wanted his ring on Rory's finger and as much as he knew she kept expecting him to put it there, he waited and he hoped that one day soon Lorelai would give him, and _them,_ a chance.

They could, and often did, talk the entire situation in circles. They weren't willing to give each other up, they couldn't move back east so that they were at least closer to Lorelai (which both of them thought would improve her opinion) and there wasn't any other clear means to fixing things.

So they sat staring at each other, siting out on their deck and eating pasta, and they tried to think of something to add to their ongoing discussion. There was nothing there though and they both knew it. After a few very long minutes Logan sighed and took a drink of wine.

"Maybe she just needs more time." He finally suggested. It wasn't the option that he wanted to rely on though. _Some time_ tended to become _a lot of time_, which usually ended up being years and years. He wasn't willing to wait that long.

"That's what Dad says." Rory admitted. "Of course Dad also pointed out that Mom still holds a grudge against Grandma and Grandpa for not supporting her more fully when she got pregnant with me."

"Well that's really not encouraging." Logan commented with a baffled laugh.

"I'm not sure that he meant for it to be encouraging. In some ways I see it more as a warning." Rory told him. Her voice was quiet but even then Logan could hear the hurt in it.

He reached across and held her hand. "I won't let you go."

"You couldn't push me away now without a fight on your hands." She replied and flipped her hand to hold his in return.

"So what do we do? What does Chris suggest?" Logan asked.

"We live our lives Logan." Rory answered. "Dad's right about that. I've been thinking about some things and I wonder: if I hadn't decided to go back to Yale, to finish my degree in Journalism, to move out of Grandma and Grandpa's, to basically do all the things that mom wanted me to do right from the start; would we have started talking again?"

"Rory that was-" He started to say but she cut him off and kept talking.

"It's not exactly the same obviously, but the root of the problem is. When I decided to quit school, I was doing something that she was against. There was no discussing it with her, or explaining my point of view, or my feelings. She didn't care at all about what I needed. She expected me to do what she wanted me to do, and when I refused to fall in line with those plans, she kicked me out of the house." As she talked and explained what she'd been thinking about, and how it applied to now, he could only clench his teeth in frustration with Lorelai.

"Think about it Logan," Rory rushed on with a squeeze of his hand. "It wasn't until I decided to go back to school, moved out of my grandparents house and got a job at the paper in Stamford that we started talking again."

"That was partly you though too, Ace." Logan had to point out, since he could still remember the nights when she was upset because of her mother's refusal to accept her decisions.

"To a certain degree, yes, I'll give you that because I wasn't willing to go back to Yale until I knew what I was doing, until I was sure." Rory agreed but continued on. "But she had no give to her at all. To her there was no compromise. And she's doing it again Logan. I chose to be with you, to come to Cali and make a life here, and she's completely cut me off from her life. The only reason I have any idea what's going on with her is because I talk to Sookie and Luke."

"Maybe we should go and visit." Logan suggested for not the first time.

"Maybe." Rory admitted. "I don't know that going to see her would really make a difference though. At the end of the weekend, we'd still be coming home."

Logan held her gaze and allowed his expression to show her how much that single statement meant to him. 'Home' wasn't Stars Hollow for her anymore, it wasn't New Haven, or Hartford. Home was their little house in Redwood City, California, with it's quirky decor and it's avocado tree in the backyard. Home was more than just the place they slept, it was the place they made for one another in their lives. They were each other's home now. And he made sure that she saw everything that he felt in that moment.

"I love you, Ace."

She smiled and squeezed his hand again. "I love you too. She's not going to come between us Logan. It nearly tore us apart once already, we can't let her issues with us being together stand in our way anymore." He heard the message that she was trying to give him and he acknowledged it with a quirk of his lips but otherwise didn't say anything. He'd never told her the reason why he hadn't asked her to marry him again, but of course Rory was too smart not to figure it out.

He understood what she was saying though. If they, he, continued to let Lorelai have sway over their actions and their lives, they were never going to escape from her control over their happiness. That was stating it somewhat harshly, and it was by no means the same kind of control that Mitchum had tried to hold over Logan, but it was a control none the less. The only way to completely get out from under it, was to leave it behind.

They sat outside for a while longer and finished their meal in the quiet. When they were done, they took their dishes into the house and cleaned up the kitchen. The moved into the living room, with some snacks, and turned their attention to the TV. Logan relaxed for what seemed like the first time in weeks, and Rory just enjoyed finally having her man back. They sat there, flipping through the channels until they settled on _The Office_ (the American version) which they then proceeded to mock relentlessly and compare to the UK version that they both preferred.

A couple hours later they were again flipping through the channels and Rory was picking at one of the cinnamon buns that she'd baked earlier. Logan noticed the expression on her face and watched her for a few minutes before saying something.

"What?" He asked. He wondered if she was again thinking about the situation with her mother or if something else was bothering her.

Rory grimaced and peeked at Logan under her lashes. Finally she admitted what was on her mind. "Next time I want cinnamon buns, just tell me to get them from the cafe. These really aren't as good."

And Logan couldn't help it. After everything that they'd talked about that night, and all that was going on in their lives, he could only toss his arm around Rory's shoulder and laugh at her dissatisfaction with her cinnamon bun.

* * *

**_I hope you enjoyed another foray into my world of Rory and Logan! _**

**_Let me know what you think... because the end is coming. (I haven't written it yet, but I know where I'm going. Mostly!)_**


	13. Too Happy, Too Tired to Fight

**_Another chapter for all my happy followers, fans and critics. A little Christmas present from me to you._**

Some of you may not like the Lorelai/Rory interaction in this chapter. I don't know if it's really OOC, but it's certainly not what we've come to expect for Lorelai, or Rory, from the show. Things are working out for Logan and Rory. Not everything is easy - there always seems to be some blight on their horizon - but together they are working things out.

**The end is coming.** I'm sorry but it is. Depending on how the words flow there will be 2, or maybe three, more chapters. I'm aiming for two chapters but as you can see, this chapter ended up being ridiculously wordy and it's entirely possible that the rest of the story will be that way as well.

Again I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed and commented on this story - for the last chapter and throughout it's lifetime. I'm so happy that so many people like this story and that even after all this time, that so many of you have been keeping your eyes open for updates! So, thanks!

**_As always I have to admit that although I'd love it, I just don't have any ownership rights to the _Gilmore Girls._ If I did, I swear things would have gone SO differently at the end. Alas, those rights belong to ASP, DR and the WB/CW. (More foolish folks, I've never known.)_**

Enjoy!**_  
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**Too Happy, Too Tired to Fight**

"Ace." Logan said softly and nudge her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. "Ace, wake up."

"Mmphff." The response came to him from the depths of her pillow.

Normally he would leave her be, it was never a smart thing waking up a Gilmore Girl in the middle of the night, but he'd been lying there awake for more then 2 hours and he knew that until he talked to her, he'd never get to sleep. So he nudged her again, slightly harder than before.

"Rory, wake up!" This time his voice was at a normal tone and even to him it seemed unnaturally loud compared to the silence in the rest of the house.

Her head lifted from the pillow quickly and through slitted eyes she glanced around in confusion. "Wha'? Log'n?" She managed to mutter before dropping her head back to the pillow and closing her eyes.

"No. Rory I need to talk to you." He told her and pulled slightly at her shoulder in an attempt to get her to roll over and face him.

"What?" Her tone was disgruntled now but he watched as she lifted her head again to glance at the alarm that sat near her head. The blue digits, 4:12, glowing on the face of seemed to mock him. "What could you possibly need to discuss at four in the morning?"

"I know, I'm sorry. But I've been lying here thinking about something for frigging hours and I'm never gonna get to sleep unless I talk to you about this now." He told her.

"And I'm going to be falling asleep during my staff meeting," she grumbled as she rolled and shifted and adjusted her position, and Logan instantly started to feel guilty because now he remembered her meeting and he knew what she was going to say. "Which I have to leave for in less then three hours."

"Shit. I'm sorry. I completely forgot about the meeting." He ran his hand down her arm and tangled his fingers with hers as he apologized. "Go back to sleep. I can wait till later."

"Nope." Rory told him and yawned hugely. "You've got me awake now, you might as well talk about whatever it is that you thought was important enough to wake me up in the middle of the night." Maybe it was small of her but she heaped the guilt on purposely with every word. Payback was a bitch after all.

"Really?" He asked warily.

"Really." She said. "I would suggest that next time you have coffee though."

"You want coffee?" He asked and wondered if that might not be a bad idea. Coffee would at least mellow her mood a bit.

She grabbed his arm as he made to get out of bed. "Logan. Seriously, I'm just teasing."

"No, no." He told her. "Coffee's a good idea."

"Logan." Rory sighed as he slipped out of her grasp and climbed from the bed.

"Do you want me to bring it up here, or will you come down?" He asked and she eyed him with interest because he was already edging out of the room. Now, for whatever reason, he suddenly seemed nervous.

"I guess I'll come down." She admitted and slipped out of the bed to follow him. She used the washroom and then pulled her robe on before leaving their room and going down the stairs to the kitchen. She could already smell the coffee as it started brewing and as she padded into the room on silent feet she found Logan standing in front of the sink, in the dark, staring out the window into the backyard.

"Logan?" She said quietly. It was aggravating that he'd waken her up in the middle of the night, but whatever he wanted to talk about really seemed to be bothering him and she wanted to know what it was.

He turned to her as she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his middle. He held her close to him for a long minute too, before pulling back and boosting her up onto the counter top to sit.

"I was thinking about something that you said the other night," Logan started and she interrupted him right away to clarify.

"The other night?"

"The night I got back from Albuquerque." He admitted.

"Logan! That was weeks ago." She said.

"I know. But I've been thinking about what you said ever since then and tonight it just started to bug me. I guess it's been on my mind more lately because we're heading to Connecticut on the weekend for your birthday." Logan told her and in the middle of the night when there was nothing else happening, and no one who could interrupt them, the words seemed _slightly_ easier to get out.

"What exactly did I say?" Rory asked since she couldn't exactly remember what she might have said that would get him so worked up.

"Well, we were talking about Lorelai-" He started to explain and she cut him off at the sound of her mother's name.

"Please tell me that you did not wake me up at four o'clock in the morning to talk about all the shit that is happening with my mother!" Rory begged him.

Logan winced. "Yes and no." Rory sighed at his admission and slid back slightly from him embrace. She didn't say anything though she just waited for his explanation.

"It's not so much about your mother, as it is about what you said about your mother." He told her swiftly hoping that she wouldn't be too pissed.

"What?" That's all she said though the tone she said it in added a great deal more.

"You said that we couldn't let her issues come between us." Logan continued and he kept his voice level, in hopes that she'd neither hear that he was anxious nor that he was concerned. "I knew that you were right. In my head. But I have been letting her issues with me and with us being together get between us. I shouldn't have. I guess I just didn't want to be more of the reason why you and Lorelai aren't getting along because I know how much this is hurting you and I absolutely hate seeing you upset."

"Logan, you're not the reason why mom and I aren't getting a long. Not to me." Rory told him and allowed her body to relax and shift closer to him again as she looped her arms around his neck. "This impasse that we're at with her... That's her doing, her issues. Not ours."

"And I get that. I do. But the way that it makes you feel is our issue. The fact that you can't even talk to her anymore without ending up in tears is a problem Rory. I'm afraid that you're going to wake up one morning and wonder if all of this is worth it." Logan admitted.

Rory's arms tightened around him. "If I didn't think that you, and us, and being here, was worth it, I wouldn't have come after you. And I wouldn't still be here. I _love_ you Logan. It might hurt that mom can't accept that but that's not going to stop me from holding on to you with both hands. I know what it's like to be without you and trust me, it's way worse then this."

"Are you sure?" Logan asked her, his own arms holding her a bit tighter in anticipation of the answer.

"Of course I'm sure." Rory replied with a small baffled shake of her head.

Logan searched her expression for any signs of doubts or worry and Rory was amazed at the intensity that his own face showed. They were silent for a minute and then Logan let out a long breath.

"Then marry me."

Rory's breath caught in her throat and she watched as he reached over and pulled the same ring box from June out of the drawer that held all the cooking utensils.

She swallowed as he flipped open the lid and held the box, their future, between their bodies. She let go of his neck with one arm and fingered the ring gently. "Interesting hiding spot."

"The one place you'd never think to look for it." He admitted with a nervous laugh and watched the play of emotions flow over her face: nervousness, fear, relief, joy.

"Marry me." He said again softly. Finally she raised her eyes to his and said the one thing that he'd been scared to hear but now made his entire both sag with relief and happiness.

"Yes." And with that word he tugged the ring out of it's satin bed and slipped it into the place where it belonged.

* * *

"Rory, you look absolutely wonderful!" Emily Gilmore exclaimed as Rory and Logan stepped into the parlor in the Gilmore's Hartford. They were having a party for Rory's birthday later in the evening but Rory had called the night before and asked if Emily and Richard would invite her parents, and Logan's family over to the house for dinner.

"Thank you Grandma," Rory said sincerely. "I'm sorry we're late. It actually did take us longer to get here then we'd expected this time."

"Oh. Where were you coming from?" Richard asked as he greeted Logan and Rory in the middle of the room.

"New York, actually." Rory told him with a slight grimace.

"Finn flew in this afternoon for the party tonight and we met him at JFK with Colin and then drove out together." Logan explained to the group.

"Understandable." Mitchum inserted into the conversation. "Was the freeway still backed up with that accident?"

"It was. We only got in to town about 20 minutes ago and had to drop Colin and Finn off at a friends place so that they could get ready." Logan answered his father.

Everyone made the appropriate noises as Richard got drinks for Rory and Logan and they all got reseated. They chatted for a few minutes about the weather, common acquaintances and the DAR before Logan and Rory finally glanced at each other and shared a smile. They all noticed the look but it was Emily who asked the question that was on everybodies mind.

"Didn't you mention last night that you had an announcement you wanted to share with us?" She asked curiously. As far as she'd been able to tell her granddaughter wasn't wearing a ring but she hadn't had a very good chance to check.

The couple shared another glance and Logan gave Rory an encouraging nod. Seeing this, Lorelai snorted under her breath, something which only Christopher seemed to notice, and took a gulp of her martini.

"Well," Rory began and as she talked her happiness bloomed across her entire expression. "I had my three month performance review yesterday and it seems that when I wrote that community interest piece about the electoral candidates last month, that I caught the attention of some of the other editors at the paper. I guess they liked what I wrote and how I wrote it, and after looking over my other work and my portfolio decided to offer me a new position."

"And she was worried that they weren't going to like her." Logan said as he squeezed her hand.

"That's wonderful Rory." Richard told her with a smile.

"What's the new position?" Honor Huntzberger asked, speaking for the first time since they'd greeted each other.

Again, amazingly, Rory's smile seemed to grow. "Starting a week from Monday, I'll officially be the newest Political Correspondant for the Chronicle. They want me to go to the major rallies and debates between now and the Election and focus my stories with a human interest slant."

"Impressive Rory," Mitchum congratulated her. "I'm glad to see that you're still proving me wrong." That pulled another snort from Lorelai. Unfortunately, this time it drew the attention of nearly all the rooms occupants. Lorelai was staring at Rory and Logan with a look of utter distaste.

"What?" Rory asked her and she couldn't help but sound belligerent.

Lorelai shrugged. "Nothing."

"No. I think it's something and since you've already drawn attention to yourself, you might as well just say whatever it is that you're thinking." Rory told her.

"Fine." Lorelai said and she leaned forward to set her empty martini glass on the coffee table, on either side of her Luke and Christopher exchanged uncomfortable glances. "I just think that it's rather convenient that you managed to get a job at the paper out there so quickly and now you're already being promoted to what apparently amounts to an amazing position. So yeah, I think it's just a little too convenient."

"So what? You don't think that I actually earned it?" Rory demanded.

Lorelai released a harsh little laugh and her eyes cut toward Logan. "Oh, I'm sure that you did _something_ to earn it."

Rory couldn't believe what she was hearing. Neither could Logan, or anyone else in the room for that matter, but it was Rory's reaction that the other's were concerned about. She paled slightly and her mouth opened and closed a few times as though she couldn't quite make any words escape the surprise that gripped her. The seconds ticked by and there was no sound except the clink of ice against the glasses held by the nervous members of the Gilmore and Huntzberger families.

Finally they watched as Rory swallowed and took a deep breath. "What is wrong with you? Your only daughter just told you that she'd received an amazing job promotion and all you can do is insinuate that she slept her way into the position! Are you serious?"

"Or insane?" Christopher and Luke both asked in identical tones of frustration and anger.

"What? It's not like you weren't thinking the same thing!" Lorelai said to Chris.

"No! I wasn't." Chris informed her and his voice became frigid with rage. "But then I've been talking to our daughter several times a week and I know just how hard she's been working. I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that she deserves that promotion!"

"Are you drunk?" Emily asked, as though being inebriated would make her daughters comments more understandable.

"Ha. No! I've only had two drinks. You poured them mom, you should know." Lorelai told her.

"Grandma just ignore her, she's just trying to provoke you now." Rory said with a sigh. She glanced at Logan and he squeezed her hand in silent support. "And dad, thank you for standing up for me but mom is entitled to her opinion, even if it sounds like some drunken conspiracy theory that she concocted after a weekend marathon of spy movies."

"Please." Lorelai scoffed. "I wouldn't need an entire weekend to come up with that particular theory. I mean really, am I the only one who sees the coincidences that have led to this 'amazing promotion?'"

"Coincidences?" Richard asked and you could hear the embarrassment that was poorly suppressed beneath a good deal of anger.

"Yeah, ya know, he proposes in June and she says no, she sticks around here and practically floods New England papers with resumes. For six weeks she hears nothing, then she up and decides that she wants him back, so she hies off across the country and finds the Newspaper Prince. He takes her back and she magically gets a 'great job' right away. Then only three months later she's getting this amazing promotion and getting all this recognition for her work and they come back here and call us all together with some mysterious announcement... Is the Prince making you his Princess, Rory?" Lorelai asked with a sneer.

Again Rory looked at her mom for a few moments in silence. Finally she is able to say something but it comes out so quietly that they all have to strain to hear the words.

"I never told you, because I knew that you'd try and get me to take one of them regardless of how I felt about them, but I had three job offers from papers out here before I left for California. One in Hartford, one in Boston and the third was in Philidelphia." Rory told her. "But I couldn't make myself accept any of them. Whatever it was, none of the jobs felt right for me."

"Then I decided to go out to California and I knew that if I was going to stay, if Logan would take me back, that I was going to have to find something quickly. The very first day that I was in Cali, before I ever even tracked Logan down or talked to him, I'd already applied to two papers. I talked to Logan twice - once very briefly and the second time for like an hour, and then he left town on a business trip. Before he got back from that first trip I'd already had my first interview with the Chronicle and had scheduled my call-back interview."

"Beyond that, I haven't applied to a single Huntzberger owned paper since graduation. Not ONE! And the Chronicle is one of HPG's friendly competitors, so I know that they wouldn't hire me _just_ because I was with Logan, now or in the past." Rory rambled and rambled and rambled and finally she had to stop to take a breath.

As soon as she stopped, Lorelai asked a question. "Why didn't you tell me about the job offers?"

"Because you were glad that I'd turned down Logan's proposal and you didn't seem care whether I was happy or not, and I didn't want to listen to you trying to convince me to take one of the jobs." Rory admitted. "Like I said, they just didn't feel right to me."

"Still." Lorelai started to say.

"It doesn't matter. I didn't take the jobs."

"Why the Chronicle?" Lore asked. All of them seemed to take a breath of relief because the question sounded completely sincere.

"Because they offered right away." Rory told her. "I knew that if I was going to stay I needed a job, and I figured even a job that I might not like, at a paper, would be better than a crap position at a restaurant or cafe, or something."

"You would have stayed if you hadn't got the job at the paper?" Lorelai asked and she sounded as if she were actually curious.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Yes. I didn't go out to California for the jobs, or for the weather, Mother. I went there to be with Logan. Unless he told me straight out that he just didn't want me anymore, I wasn't ever going to be coming home."

"Oh."

The answer seemed to surprise everyone in the room but Rory. She knew what her mother was thinking, or at least she thought that she knew. She could see the wheels turning in Lorelai's head, see her mom trying to figure out how to salvage what she'd damaged. But Lorelai's poor opinion of Logan was to deeply entrenched to change so quickly and Lorelai, despite her claims to the contrary, was too much like Emily Gilmore for her own good sometimes.

"Still, it's lucky for you that managed to get such a good job at the Chronicle. I doubt you would have been very happy working as a waitress or something." The comment itself was benign enough but combined with the sarcastically sharp tone that Lorelai delivered it in, it was blatantly obvious that despite Rory's explanation she still thought the Chronicle job too convenient in the circumstances. And that caused frustrated sighs and exclamations to sound throughout the room.

"Lorelai-" Mitchum started say before Rory interrupted him. He wasn't entirely sure what he would have said. Maybe he would have explained that regardless of what Rory's relationship with Logan was at the time, she would only have got a job from a Huntzberger paper if the hiring editor thought she was the right person for it. It was the truth, for the most part, but he doubted that Lorelai would have believed him. So to say that he was happy to be interrupted was understandable.

"Save your breath Mitchum," Rory told him in an even tone but she didn't take her eyes off of her mother. "My mother is as stubborn as a person can possibly be. More so than even you, I'd say. And she's made her mind up about this. It doesn't matter what anyone says anymore, nothing is going to change her opinion or make her happy."

"Now that just isn't true! There are several things that you could say to change my mind and make me happy." Lorelai countered with a prissy little smirk and like Rory, didn't move her eyes from her daughters.

"Lorelai," Emily started.

"Rory." Richard said.

Everyone in the room was watching the 'polite' battle between the two younger Gilmore girls. Each of them waited to see what would happen next. No one could see any way to derail the argument that had been brewing between mother and daughter for months. At Rory's side, Logan sat tense and silent, knowing that this was something that Rory had to do - whatever the result.

Finally Rory asked the question that everyone, and no one, wanted the answer to. "And what _exactly_ would that be, Mom?"

"That you're moving home." Lorelai told her with a tick of her finger. "That you've finally seen _him_ for exactly what he is, that you're finished him, and that you're never going to see or contact him again."

"And that's all it'll take?" Rory asked in an curious voice. She raised her eyebrows with the question too, but her mother seemed to miss the sarcastic tilt of her head and the slightly lowered tone of voice.

"Absolutely!" Lorelai said happily and smiled brightly as though she really believed that Rory was about to give in. And amazingly she did, she was that oblivious to the undertones of the room, she was so caught up in her own head.

Rory stared at her mother for what seemed like a really, really long time. Logan shifted uncomfortably beside her, unable to stop what was coming, and the rest of their families sat in silence looking back and forth between the two stubborn woman. As for Rory herself, she studied her mother's face and wondered when their relationship had become so one-sided, when they'd gone from standing beside each other through anything and always having one another's back, to this - to standing firmly on opposite sides of an issue, both of them unwilling to relent.

Finally she blinked and looked away. She bit her lip and concentrated really hard on keeping herself from crying. She'd cried enough lately because of her mother, she really didn't want to ruin her makeup by crying before the party. Their families wondered, as they watched her, what she was going to do. She turned to Logan and smiled sadly, her eyes glassy with unshed tears and they all held their breath. He squeezed her hand and his expression was full of love. And understanding.

Then she looked back to Lorelai. Lorelai saw the expression of pain in Rory's face and drew the conclusion that she wanted from it, a smile spread across her face. "Oh, Rory you won't be sorry about this. Once you're back, everything will be perfect and we can go back to how things were before." Lorelai rambled and Chris and Luke looked at her with nearly identical expressions of surprise and frustration. "We'll eat at Luke's every day and Sookie will feed us too. You can work with Andrew or at the Inn until you find something at a paper near here and-"

"Mom." Rory's soft but firm voice interrupted her. Every word was like a cut to the heart, a betrayal of everything Rory had always held dear to her. She started to shake her head slowly and with each movement Lorelai's bright smile dimmed a little bit.

"No." Lorelai whispered.

"Things can't go back to how they were Mom." Rory told her sadly.

"No." Lorelai said again.

"I told you the night I left that if you forced me to make a choice between you and Logan, that you wouldn't like what my choice was. Why would you push it to this?" Rory asked but she really didn't want or expect an answer, and she knew that Lorelai really didn't have one.

Now it was Lorelai that was slowly shaking her head and Lorelai who was slowly paling. "Rory, please. We were so much better before you got pulled into their world."

"Maybe we were Mom, but I did get pulled in. And I found out for myself that it wasn't all as bad as you said it was." Rory told her. "Not all the people were as bad as you described them."

"These people have done nothing but put you down and treat you like crap since the moment they met you!" Lorelai exclaimed as she gestured to Logan's parents and grandfather.

"And that's at least partially true of you too!" Rory replied hotly. "But over time they've become better. All you've done is become worse and worse."

"They will never let you marry their son!"

"When the time comes, they'll have nothing to do with it and even less say in the matter!" Rory answered loudly and then cut herself off, taking several deep breaths before continuing. "I'm not going to fight with you mom. You've made your wishes abundantly clear. And I've spent most of the last couple years fighting with you about Logan and defending our relationship. I'm just not going to do it anymore."

"Rory," Luke started to say. He was beginning to see where this was going and no matter how bad the last few months had been, he could see that this was only going to make it worse.

"I made my choice when I left home four months ago. Or I started to." Rory explained. "And two nights ago, when Logan asked me to marry him, and I said yes, I finished making that choice. I love him, Mom, and I am going marry him. Nothing you say or do is going to change my mind on that."

"Rory, please." Lorelai begged, suddenly realizing the position that she'd forced them into.

"You've brought us to this point. You've done this. You've pushed and pulled, you've ignored us and done everything you could to make me change my mind. But what you just don't understand, what you probably aren't even capable of comprehending, is that I'm happy. Even without in my life, as my best friend and one of my closest confidantes, I'm happy. Without Logan though, I'm not. I can live, I can succeed, I can do anything I want to, but without him I would never be truly happy." Rory made her impassioned speech and Lorelai paled more with each word.

"You're my mother and I'll always love you, always be grateful to you for everything that you sacrificed for my sake, but I won't sacrifice my happiness just to appease you. Maybe that makes me selfish but I won't." Rory made her proclaimation and everyone in the room waited to see what would happen. There was no response from Lorelai, though she cried silently and stared at Rory. And Rory said no more, just continued to watch her mother and held tightly to Logan's hand.

After several minutes of silence, during which the Emily's maid came into the room and announced that dinner was ready, Logan and Rory rose from their seats and stood side by side. They were both somber, quiet, and resolute. Most importantly, they were firmly at each others side, in each other's court and in full support of every decision the other made.

"My decision is made. Logan is going to be in my life and nothing is going to change that. Not even you. The only thing that is left to do, is for you to decide whether you can accept the way things are. Because I'm just... Done." Rory told her wearily.

With that, Logan and Rory left the room quietly and headed to the table in the dining room. Back in the parlor all was quiet, until Luke spoke.

"You kept her from this life for 16 years Lorelai and I would never blame you for that. But she walked into this society, this world, with her eyes open and every one of your recriminations of it ringing in her ears. Every choice she's made since then has considered what you would think and what you'd feel about it. Along the way she's defended you and your actions to your parents and to society. She's been your biggest supporter no matter what, no matter whether she really approved of what you were doing or not." Luke stood as well, and the others followed suit. "Over the years she's experienced the good and the bad of this world. She's seen all that you told her about and plenty that you never mentioned. Regardless, she's an adult now and you have to let her make her own choices and her own mistakes. It's her life Lorelai, and you shouldn't be punishing her for choosing a life makes her happy."

"It's not what you would have done, or what you did, but it's her choice Lore. You have to let her make it." Chris added and then both he and Luke, and the Huntzbergers, followed the kids into the other room.

When only Richard and Emily remained in the room with Lorelai she looked at them, and while they felt sorry for the pain she was suffering now, they couldn't understand her reasoning or her choices.

"You'll do as wish," Emily finally said to her. "You always have. And for the most part you've never cared whether your choice hurts the people who care about you. But you've gone too far this time Lorelai and I just... I don't know what to say to you."

Emily left the room quietly, leaving Richard and Lorelai behind. She paused in the hallway to compose herself before following the rest of the dinner party into the dining room and joining in the impromptu celebrations occurring there. She joined Honor beside Rory and took her turn examining the ring and hugging both Logan and Rory in congratulations. In the midst of the excitement she stopped beside the two men who had loved her daughter for so long and surprised both of them by giving them each a brief hug. Knowing that she'd shocked them into speechlessness she explained with a few quick words.

"Thank you for what you said back there. I wasn't sure where you stood on the matter," she directed this part to Luke. "But I'm happy that you can see the big picture and are willing to stand at opposition to Lorelai despite the fact that it could hurt your relationship with her."

"I've always loved Rory like a daughter and even though I haven't always liked Logan, I can see how much happier Rory is with him then she was after graduation when she was in Stars Hollow." Luke admitted.

"Well I'm glad. But I am sorry that your supporting Rory might put where you stand with Lorelai at risk." Emily repeated herself. She may not be able to say that she fully supported Lorelai's desire to be with Luke but she'd found some peace with the situation over the last couple of months since Rory had mentioned that she believed Luke and Lorelai were getting back together.

"Don't worry about it Emily." Luke said. "When Rory left, Lane and I tried talking to Lorelai about things. I thought that she was really hearing what we were saying and at the time, we'd both thought that she was beginning to accept things. Then Rory sent for her things and everything went down hill from there. Lorelai didn't appreciate that I was supporting Rory's move or her relationship with Logan and things have been rough since then. She can't accept my stance on things, anymore than I can accept hers. That's just the way it is."

"Still-" Emily started but he cut her off with a shake of the head. So she laid a hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze before releasing him and turning to Christopher. "And you."

"She is my daughter." Chris replied.

"She's Lorelai's too." Emily retorted. "Doesn't seem to matter much there does it?"

"It's different for her though Emily and in many ways it's more difficult for her to accept than it is for the rest of us. I'm not saying that I think she's right, or even justified in acting the way she is, but the circumstances are hard for her." Chris said.

"I know that too but she's had time to accept things as they are. Logan and Rory were together for years before graduation. They lived together. Lorelai has had plenty of time to adjust to the fact that Rory is apart of society, not just because of Richard and I, but by choice and inclination as well." Emily stated. It was the root of why she couldn't understand Lorelai's stance and she really wished that someone could explain it to her.

"Yes but Lorelai has always thought of Rory as a mini her. This second part of herself, who though different would uphold the same beliefs - good and bad, and would always want to live her life the same way that Lorelai herself does." Chris explained. "And when Rory said no to Logan in June, Lorelai assumed that she was right. She never dreamed that Rory would have second thoughts about her decision."

"I suppose that's true." Emily admitted. "I just wish Lorelai could see how happy Rory is, and how silly she's being."

"Someday she will." Chris said.

"Yes. But what will she miss out on, and lose, in the meantime?" Emily pondered aloud.

"I think you'd know better then us what the answer to that is, Emily." Luke responded. All three of them looked over at Rory and Logan who were happily talking with Honor and Josh, and Mitchum, Shira and Elias. And though Luke's words were true, they each knew the what the answer was.

"Too much." Emily said so softly that the two men standing near her barely heard the words. Then Rory glanced over at them and they joined in the conversation as they all found their seats at the table. They were just getting settled when Richard walked in and took his seat, Lorelai following slowly behind him.

"Let's eat." Richard said and smiled at his growing family.

* * *

**_For you my friends!_**

**_Merry Christmas and I hope you'll all have a safe and happy New Year! _**

**_Cheers! _**

**_~~ apalusa ~~  
_**


	14. All the Smiling People

**To all my faithful readers**... I haven't forgotten you! Here is the next chapter of _**An Ending of a New Beginning**_ and I hope that you'll all like it!

Thanks to everyone who commented/reviewed on the last chapter _(Too Happy, Too Tired to Fight)_. I love hearing what you think about where Rory and Logan are going with their lives and all the obstacles that get in their way. Let me know what you think about this chapter - I really hope you'll like it.

_As always, I must say that I don't own the **Gilmore Girls**, nor do I have any rights to anything but my own storylines and creations. ASP, DR and the WB/CW can take the blame for what they did to Rory and Logan, and I'll take the credit for putting them back to how they are supposed to be!_

Happy Reading and enjoy!

**

* * *

All the Smiling People**

Richard watched Lorelai's face as Emily walked from the room. He saw the surprise flash over her face, even through the sadness. He didn't say anything for a while, he waited for his daughter to speak first. They'd all, he and Emily, Christopher, Rory, Logan and even Luke, said plenty about the situation over the last 4 months, even as she'd refused to talk about it. At least now he knew why, even if it did make him even more angry. So he waited.

Finally Lorelai grumbled as she wiped her nose and eyes. "I assume you've got something to say, despite the fact that mom doesn't."

"I do." He agreed but didn't go on.

"Well, hit me with it." She told him.

"Why do you hate us so much?" He asked. The question wasn't precisely a fair one but it played in to the current situation.

"What?" Lorelai replied confused. "I don't hate you."

"You hate our life - the way we act, our choices, our opinions. It's a normal conclusion that if you hate everything about our lives, that you'd hate us as well." He continued conversationally as he held his temper hidden deep undercover. He'd spent years watching Lorelai and Emily fight things out and for the most part he'd stayed out of their arguments; he tried not to pick sides so that their family wouldn't be completely destroyed. This time though Emily was right, Lorelai had finally gone too far. She'd said too much to just let things go. She'd hurt them all, but most especially she'd hurt Rory this time and considering their history, that was something he couldn't just forget.

"No Dad! I just-" she started but paused, looking for the right words.

"Just what Lorelai?" He asked.

She took a deep breath and plunged in. "It's fake. Real life isn't garden parties, cocktails, and tea with the ladies at the club. And there are more important things than making sure there are enough salmon puffs, finding the perfect dress and gossiping about who's sleeping with who. There's more to do than skate from party to party, and find more exotic ways to spend money that you've done nothing to earn besides marrying someone rich."

"And you say we're judgemental of your life." He said sardonically.

Lorelai blinked. She hadn't really thought of it that way, or in any like term. She'd never really considered that she was being judgemental because she'd lived that life, she'd experienced it and formed her own opinions of it. Her parents judgement of her life was based solely on the fact that they didn't like her choices, the fact that she didn't want their money, or their help, and that she didn't include them in her life. She'd never considered their judgements that important though because they didn't know how great her life was, how happy she was with it. She'd always tried to take what they said with a grain of salt because it was always accompanied by the snobby sneer of their high society expectations.

"It's different Dad. You have no idea what my life is really like and you have no way of understanding because you've never been there. You've never lived it." She didn't know why it suddenly seemed so important to make him understand her, maybe it was because he thought she hated him, actually _hated_ him, maybe it was because she'd just watched her daughter walk away from her, but she needed to make him understand.

"But you've never really lived our lives either Lorelai." Richard told her. "You were a teenager, a kid, when you were part of this life. You don't really known what our lives entail. You've seen bits and pieces, some of it good and some of it bad. You've experienced parts of this life that most other people haven't but what you still haven't managed to realize Lorelai, and this after 23 years, is that our reaction and Strobe and Francine's to a certain degree as well, wasn't solely a response of high society. It was a response from parents who were raised in a different time, with different norms of behavior and different beliefs about what was acceptable and what wasn't."

"That's crap! When I got pregnant, all of you could only bemoan how the rest of Hartford's elite was going to look at you. 'Oh! The scandal!' You didn't care what was right, or wrong, or how being pregnant had forever changed _my _life; you were concerned about your image and your business. That's it!" Lorelai argued impassioned.

Richard sighed and shook his head. "Lorelai, it wasn't just about our image. Or the scandal." Lorelai snorted. "It was a scandal Lorelai, at that time it was considered a scandal and to many of the people in the older generations it still is. Times have changed - what's considered scandalous now is different and a teenage pregnancy now days, while still frowned upon, is far more common of an occurrence. We may have reacted badly but it was a result of the way we were brought up."

"That doesn't make it better Dad."

"Neither does your bad experiences with society make it okay for you to turn away from your daughter." He pointed out.

"That's different." She argued weakly.

"Why can't you see that you're doing the same thing that we did?" He asked and this time he was the one impassioned. "You don't approve of what she wants, so you're making her choose between the two people who mean the most in the whole world to her. You walked away from us, so easily, because you weren't happy with the life we wanted for you. You wanted something different for yourself and you wanted to give your child a different life and a different perspective."

"And she's throwing that away!" Lorelai said.

He shook his head and his finger at her. "She has a different perspective Lorelai, that doesn't mean that she can't accept the good that this life offers. It doesn't mean that she can't be happy with someone like Logan, and a family like the Huntzbergers. She'll never take for granted all that they'll have, she'll never treat those who are less fortunate than her differently, and because of all you've taught her over the years, she'll never accept something that she hasn't earned because of what her last name is." He got up and moved to sit beside his daughter and took her hands in his as he watched her expression sadden again, and tears well in her eyes.

"You did a wonderful job raising her Lorelai. You gave her all the tools she'll need to be successful in all aspects of her life. You taught her the value of standing up for herself in our world, and for staying strong in the face of disapproval and disappointment. It's a hard lesson to learn, for all involved, but it's one that will serve her well in life." He squeezed her hands with compassion and love for his only child. "You should be proud of her Lorelai."

"It feels like she's betraying me." Lorelai admitted. "Her being with Logan, her being so close to you and mom, it feels like a betrayal."

"Why?" Richard asked her. "She's not trying to leave you behind. She's not trying to erase or forget all that you taught her over the years. Good Lord, Lorelai, she's been trying to include you in everything that has been happening in her life, even if by only talking to you about it and discussing it with you. You've always been her best friend, her closest confidante. You've always been so much more than _just_ her mother. And now, at a time in her life when she needs you most of all, all you're doing is pushing away and turning your back on her."

"She turned from me first." The murmured response made Richard chuckle.

"She did not. And even if she did, you're an adult Lorelai. You've been an adult since you got pregnant and chose to leave us all those years ago. Perhaps it's time you start acting like one."

Lorelai took a sharp breath. "That's hardly fair. Or true."

"Are you sure? Your actions lately haven't been all that mature." He pointed out.

She looked away because she knew, even though she wouldn't admit it, that he was right. She'd known it since that day in the diner when Luke and Lane had tried to explain to her why Rory had needed to go. It just hurt too much to admit that she was wrong, and that she was ruining the most important relationship in her life.

It was like Rory dropping out of Yale all over again. Lorelai could see the reasons, she just couldn't understand. That Logan was again at the root of their differences grated too because no matter who she had been with - Luke, Christopher, Max, Jason - Rory had always remained the most important person in her life, always. Logan took precedent over Lorelai in so many things already and she feared that eventually she'd become forgotten.

Of course, she hadn't truly believed that Rory would ever choose Logan over her if the issue was pressed. She should have taken Rory's words, the night that she'd left of California, a bit more seriously. She should have remembered that her daughter doesn't say things she doesn't mean. She should have remembered... so many things. Now it was too late, she'd pushed too far and said too much. Now she'd been cut out of the life that was most essential to her and she wasn't sure that she could fix it.

Richard watched Lorelai's face as she thought through the situation, he watched the different emotions as they flowed over her face. He watched as despair settled on her face and her eyes became grave. Then he offered her a single beam of hope that he knew she'd need if she wanted to repair the damage that she'd wrought.

"It's not too late Lorelai. If you truly want to fix things with your daughter, if you want to be a part of the life that she is creating for herself... Fix things with Logan. Give him a chance. A _real_ chance. Find out about the man he is, not just where he comes from. If you want to be welcomed into their life, you are going to have to accept him into yours."

"Why didn't you do that for me?" She asked honestly. There was no sneer or sarcasm coloring the tone of the question. There was no anger. She honestly wanted to know.

"Luke's here isn't he?" Richard responded softly. "It might have taken us a while, my dear, but we were finally able to see something of what you see in him."

They were quiet again for several long moments, both of them thinking over everything from their conversation, everything that had happened over the years.

"Let's go in to dinner." He suggested. When she hesitated and glanced doubtfully toward the dining room, he stood and pulled her up with him. "You've got to start somewhere."

Lorelai followed her father to the other room and they entered as everyone else was settling in their seats. They took their seats, Lorelai found hers once again between Luke and Christopher, and though she glanced briefly at Rory and Logan who were sitting on the opposite side of the table at the other end, she looked only at her father. She saw the proud smile spread across his face as he looked at all the people who sat around his table, watched as his eyes lingered for an extra minute on Rory and Logan, and saw how they warmed when he met her mothers eyes. Guilt wormed its way deeper into her heart. She had always longed to be free of her parents, and she was beginning to think that above anything else maybe the thing they'd longed for most was for their family to be whole, and happy.

"Let's eat." Richard said and from the corner of her eye she saw her mother nod, and the maids started to bring in their meal.

* * *

Over the next few months Lorelai watched her daughter and Logan every chance she had. When the couple was home for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season, Lorelai agreed to attend a couple of the holiday parties in Hartford since Rory and Logan's engagement had been officially announced, and suddenly people she'd known in her youth were asking after her. She watched Rory interact with Hartford society - both the older and younger generations - and saw that her father was right, Rory had a confidence and innate ability to relate to the people that she herself had never been able to cultivate.

She also saw how Rory interacted with those people who served at the various functions they attended. She watched one time as Rory helped one of the servers clean up a spill at the side of the room, and saw how she talked and joked with the nervous young woman in an effort to calm her down and give her the push she needed to keep working for the rest of the night. Rory always thanked the servers, caterers and maids. Always. Again, Lorelai began to see that her father was right about Rory not taking those who were less fortunate then her for granted.

Lorelai mourned the fact that for only the second time in 23 years, she and Rory weren't together on Christmas morning. She saw both Rory and Logan later in the day at the Gilmore's and though they did exchange gifts, Rory was holding to her stance that she wouldn't accept Lorelai back into her life, until she accepted Rory and Logan's relationship.

When Rory started coming back to Hartford once a month, after the holiday, for wedding planning and wedding related shopping, Emily took the initiative to invite Lorelai to attend as well. She knew that Rory was right in demanding her mother's approval, but after talking some with Richard she could understood some of what Lorelai was suffering as well. She'd suffered through a similar thing for years after all. So she did what she could to help Lorelai see what she'd need to see in order to find the acceptance that Rory deserved.

Rory accepted her mothers presence with them during their planning sessions, though she didn't encourage her, she didn't seek her out, and she didn't go out of her way to talk with Lorelai. Rory was determined not to give in to her mothers stance or to take what shreds of their relationship she could find. She craved her mother's opinion, she missed their conversations and their inanity. She missed her best friend. But she loved Logan, more all the time, and she knew she wasn't making a mistake when it came to him and that she was right to want her mother to accept that. Rory wouldn't take any of the steps needed to fix their relationship until she knew that her mother was really going to do her part.

Lorelai was slowly beginning to see what everyone else saw when she looked at Rory and Logan. And though she wouldn't say that she was ready to embrace Logan as part of the family, she was starting to accept that the day was coming when he would be a part of their family. She'd even started to e-mail and call the couple a few of times a week. They never talked for long but Lorelai made the effort to call and ask them about what was going on in their lives. And each time she called, she made the point of asking to speak with Logan and talking with him for a couple of minutes. Things weren't fixed, far from it in fact, but every time she spoke with Rory and Logan she came a little closer to being able to accept him as a vital part in Rory's life and by extension her life as well.

Logan was relieved that Lorelai was making an effort to fix things with Rory, even a small effort. Because he wanted things fixed between the mother-daughter duo, he was happy to talk to Lorelai and to respond to her e-mails. Through his enthusiasm to get to know her and Lorelai was able to get to know him as well. And just as her daughter had pointed out that day in July when she'd left for California, Lorelai began to see the similarities between them.

Slowly but surely, Lorelai was on the path to accepting Logan and fixing things with Rory. It was difficult for her to know precisely what to say to Rory, and what not to say, but she was slowly making progress. Then one day, the miraculous happened.

* * *

It was early in March and Lorelai was in Boston for a few days at a Hotel & Inn Convention. After the convention was over she decided to take an extra day and do some shopping - for herself, for the Dragonfly, for some birthdays that were coming up. She was walking down the street, window shopping at some of the boutique windows, when she saw it. Like a ray of sunlight shinning through the clouds Lorelai looked across at a window display, kiddie-corner from where she stood, and saw the most beautiful, most perfect wedding dress for Rory.

She'd gone along with Rory, Emily, Lane, Honor and Shira when the group had gone looking for Rory's wedding dress two weeks earlier. They had found many beautiful dresses, even a few that looked amazing on Rory, but not _the one._ Not the one dress that was the perfect one for Rory as she walked down the aisle and tied her life to Logan's. But now, here it was and for a moment Lorelai stood and stared. As she looked at it, in her mind, she could see Rory walking down the aisle wearing that dress and she could see the look of wonder and awe on Logan's face as Rory faced him at the altar. This was the dress and for the first time in months Lorelai pulled her cell phone out of her purse and mindlessly called Rory in the middle of the afternoon. As she waited for Rory to answer, she hustled across the street and then stood directly in front of the window and looked more closely at the dress.

"Hello?" Rory answered her phone distracted. She was trying to finish typing up her notes and thoughts about the speeches that she'd just watched.

"Rory?" Lorelai responded and immediately Rory's attention was drawn away from what she was writing and was diverted to the sound of her mother's voice. "I've found it."

"Found what?" She asked confused since the statement was completely out of left field, even for the two of them when they were at their best.

"Your wedding dress." Lorelai told her briskly and Rory was amazed to hear excitement and enthusiasm practically vibrating her mothers tone. "I was just wandering down the street, I was actually looking for a birthday presents for your dad and Grandma, and I looked up and it was right there! It's unbelievable. It's perfect. It's your dress!"

"Okay..." Rory replied and took a moment to consider what she should do. "What does it look like?"

"Well, it's got... Why don't I show you? Just a minute." Lorelai told her and for a moment the sound of her voice seemed far away. "I think I can do this while I'm on a call. Okay, okay, press that, send to - uh huh... And send. Send." The third time that she heard her mother say it, her voice came closer again. "There. You should get a phone pic of it any minute."

"Mom, where are you?" Rory asked.

"Oh! Ha! I'm in Boston. I had that convention, remember, I told you about the Hotel & Inn Convention is Boston. Anyways, I decided to stick around for an extra day and do some shopping. And like I said, I was just walking down the street, doing some window shopping and I looked across the street and your dress was in the window." She answered in a typical Gilmore Girl rant that had Rory smiling softly with amusement.

The phone beeped to let Rory now that she had a new message and she switched the call to speaker phone, so that she could look at the picture. "Hold on a second mom, I'm just loading your message."

"You're going to love it!" Lorelai told her enthusiastically.

"Uh huh." Rory replied while biting her lip and waiting for the picture to finish loading.

"Where are you?" Lorelai asked her while they waited. "Were you busy?"

"I was just working on some notes about today's speech." Rory answered her, again distractedly as she watched as the photo began to form.

"Today's speech?" Lorelai asked again surprised. "Where?" She wasn't sure which speech Rory was covering, but she knew that there had been a speech at Harvard earlier that day. The presidential candidates were doing a tour of the highest ranking universities in efforts to boost young adult voting numbers.

"At Harvard." Rory replied. "Mom this dress is amazing. It's just like the one that I've been picturing in my head for the last 4 months. It's perfect."

"You're at Harvard?" Lorelai asked excitedly to confirm.

"Yes. Where did you say you were?" Rory asked, her excitement started to climb with her mothers.

"I'm in downtown Boston. So like, 15-20 minutes away." She told Rory and looked to the street signs to tell Rory the cross street. At the same time, Rory started packing up her things so that she could go to meet her mom.

"Go in mom. Ask them if they've got my size, if they don't ask them if they can squeeze me in for a fitting. Tell them I really want that dress, even if I have to take the one right out of the window display. I'll be there within half an hour." Rory instructed.

"Got it." Lorelai agreed and started for the door. "I'll see you in a bit."

"Yeah. And mom..." Rory said softly.

"Yeah?" Lorelai replied.

"Thank you."

Four hours later and giddy off the joyous experience of buying her perfect wedding dress, having a meaningful conversation and superb dinner with her mother, and several glasses of champagne, Rory laid on her hotel bed in Boston and called Logan at work in California.

"Hey Ace! How did the speech go today? Did you make it to your Dad's?" Logan said as he answered his phone, while looking over some marketing contracts.

"The speeches were good." Rory told him with a slight giggle. The sound made him pause because Rory wasn't typically a giggler, usually she only giggled when she'd been drinking.

"Rory. Where are you?" Logan asked her quietly.

"I'm still in Boston. This has been one of the best days. Ever." She replied.

"Ace, what's going on? I thought you were going to go to Hartford and stay with your dad for the night before you fly back tomorrow afternoon." That had been what she'd told him earlier that day when they'd talked, before she'd gone to the speeches.

"I was going to. Don't worry, I called him earlier to let him know that I wouldn't make it there tonight. I'm going to meet him and Gigi in the morning for breakfast and then spend a couple hours with them before my flight." Rory explained and though she didn't giggle this time, Logan still heard the happy tones in her words.

"So what changed between earlier and now?" He asked curiously.

"Mom called me." She said and he rocked back in his chair and gave her absolutely all of his attention.

"She called you." He repeated.

Rory giggled again. "She did."

"Well what did she say?" He prodded her for more information. Either things had gone really well, or they'd gone really bad, and she'd had a few drinks after the conversation.

"She was shopping in Boston. I forgot that she was in Boston for that convention she mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Did you remember that she was going to be in Boston?" Rory asked but then didn't bother to wait for a response from him. "Anyways she was shopping and she found it Logan! So she called and we realized that she was in Boston, and I was in Boston - more or less - and we met up so that we could try and get it. And it was awesome Logan! They had exactly what I needed and they we were able to work out all the little details and they're going to ship it for me and then we decided to look around some for other things that I'll need, well things that we'll need, and then we went for dinner and we talked and Logan... I think things are going to be a bit better from now. She really does seem to want to fix things, I think. Do you think I'm being naive again?"

Logan just laughed. "Babe, if I had any idea what you're talking about I'd try and form some kind of an answer to any of those questions. But I think you're gonna have to give me a bit more info here."

"She found my wedding dress Logan. She found it and it's perfect. So when she called me and told me she was in Boston and where she was, I packed up my things and went to meet her. We met with the designer and I tried on the dress and had a fitting. And I bought my dress." She told Logan and she started laughing and crying.

"Ace." He replied softly and he closed his eyes. "That's great. So I take it that you and Lorelai did some more shopping after that and then got some food, and some drinks?"

"Yeah."

"And you talked?" He asked.

Rory sniffed. "Yeah. She did a lot of talking and I did a lot of listening. And some talking."

"Of course!" Logan agreed cheerfully.

"And I think that she's really going to try to accept you." Rory continued and then finally finished by repeating the questions she'd asked earlier. "Do you think I'm being naive? Am I giving in too easily?"

Logan sighed and rocked slightly in his office chair. "This fight has been going on for almost nine months Rory, I don't think that could be considered giving in too easily."

"Logan I'm serious. When we were at Yale I believed her when she told me that she was giving you a chance. When she said that she wouldn't judge you based on our early relationship, or on the way that your parents treated me, I trusted her. She lied Logan. When it came right down to it, she lied." Rory sniffed again.

"Look, Ace. I think she is trying. It's taking her a while, yeah, but I do think that she's trying. Maybe she's as worried about making a mistake as you are? She knows she screwed up Rory and more, she knows what she stands to loose. For good." Logan spoke gently, knowing how emotional Rory could be when she'd been drinking and how quickly her moods could change.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I don't think you're being naive. She's your mom, Rory. Your best friend. And you love her, despite everything that's happened, you love her. I think this time things will be different. Even if she and I never become best friends, the fact that she's willing to try and accept what we have together, and what we are together and that we're going to stay together... That's something Ace." He told her.

"She's going to drive me to Dad's tomorrow." Rory admitted.

"Good." Logan responded and though he knew that she would probably spend a lot more time obsessing over the new situation with Lorelai, he was glad that they were talking again. "That's good."

"I hope so." Rory agreed.

"Just..." Logan sighed. "Just give her a chance Rory. And don't expect too much, too quickly."

The sat there for a few minutes silently, listening only to the sound of each other's breathing.

"I love you, Logan." Rory said softly.

He chuckled and smirked. "I love you too Ace."

"I'll call you when I get to the airport tomorrow."

"And I'll be the one waiting for you when you land. Maybe I'll wear the chauffeur's hat!" He teased and he got one last giggle out of her before she hung up. As he put his phone back on his desk he couldn't help but smirk again.

* * *

_**Another chapter finished... one more step toward the end.**_ ** I've been doing some planning and I might actually have only one more chapter. You'll find out shortly, of course, but I think the end is actually within reach. ****_I can barely wait to see what's going to happen... What about you?_ **

**(A shameless ploy for more reviews and/or comments? Maybe. Will it work?)**


	15. The First Day of Something New

The long awaited, final chapter of the story. It's here (YAY!) and it all plays into the title of the story - **_An Ending or a New Beginning_**, because yeah, this story is ending but for Rory and Logan the story is just beginning.

I hope you like it. I hope it doesn't disappoint. And after you read it if you have questions, comments, concerns or just want to say hey! I'll be around. And, saints willing, will be focusing on **_The Best is Yet to Come_**.

Enjoy people!

As for a disclaimer? _I don't own The Gilmore Girls... but damn! I wish I did._

* * *

**The First Day of Something New**

Rory blinked open her eyes and immediately stifled a groan as she squeezed her eyes shut again. It was bright - very, very bright. With one hand over her eyes she slowly, and carefully, opened them again. Even the with the source of the light blocked (crap she'd forgotten to close the blinds last night!) the tiny men surrounding her continued to pound vigorously on her head. Shifting carefully in the bed, Rory blinked a couple of times and was finally able to focus on the numbers glowing on the face of the alarm clock.

8:03. She closed her eyes again and settled back on the pillow. Thankfully she had time before she needed to get up. She didn't need to be ready to leave for an hour and all she really needed to do was shower and toss some clothes on. Regardless, Rory knew that she was going to be regretting having those last couple glasses of champagne last night later in the day.

At the knock on her door she actually did groan. Maybe not _so_ much later in the day.

Taking the groan as ascent to enter, the door opened and Lorelai peeked around the edge. Seeing Rory's position in the bed she grinned and came fully into the room, closing the door softly behind her.

"How's your head this morning?" She asked.

"Ugh." Rory responded. "Why didn't you stop me sooner?"

Lorelai chuckled. "You mean like when I said 'Rory you should probably slow down a bit. You don't want to be hungover tomorrow'?"

"I hate you right now."

"Up to you." Lorelai told her. "Of course, if you're going to be hating on me, then I might have to withhold the coffee and breakfast that I've got for you in the next room. I'm sure I can take care of most of it."

"You're not seriously gonna keep me from food this morning are you?" Rory asked her astonished. Lorelai chuckled again, because during all of this Rory hadn't opened her eyes. "Are you laughing at me?"

"No, I'm not laughing at you. Technically I'm laughing with your dad. And your husband-to-be. You were warned after all." Lorelai explained.

"Why are you here?" Rory asked in a deadpan voice.

"Breakfast. Coffee. Next. Room." Lorelai's answer had just enough edge to it that Rory finally opened her eyes.

"No, seriously, why are you here? I don't have to leave for another hour." Rory pointed out.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows and smirked, her eyes twinkling in amusement. "Because your grandmother is going to be here, at 'precisely nine o'clock!', and I figured I'd prove just one more time how I'm one of the greatest parents in the whole world. Hence the food and coffee in the next room."

"Okay, you're right, I love you. Now help me up so that I can have a shower and eat before grandma gets here." Rory smiled and held out her hands to her mom.

Less than 15 minutes later Rory entered the sitting room of her hotel suite and found not only her mom, but her dad and Luke, sitting at a table filled with breakfast foods from both Luke's and from the kitchen downstairs.

"Dad! Luke! I didn't realize you were here." Rory said happily and hugged both of her 'fathers' as they rose in greeting. As she took her own seat she sent a mock-glare towards her mother. "Mom didn't mention that anyone else was here."

"No surprise there." Christopher said with a smile for both Rory and Lorelai.

"Hey! It's not like I was keeping it a secret. She didn't ask!" Lorelai argued happily.

"But you didn't give any indication that you weren't here alone did you? I suppose you took all the credit for having arranged breakfast too?" Christopher demanded. Rory couldn't help but smile as she listened to her parents laughingly argue back and forth. Listening to them always reminded Rory of herself and Logan - the similarities were just creepy sometimes!

"I didn't take any credit at all. I just said that there was breakfast in the next room." Lorelai responded.

"Uh huh." Chris said doubtfully. "You were in there for a pretty long time to only say 'there's breakfast in the next room.'"

"I made it sound prettier than that." Lorelai told him with a smirk.

Finally Rory jumps in. "Actually I believe what you said was that breakfast and coffee were supposed to show me that you're the greatest parent in the world..."

"Hey!" Both the men exclaimed. "Lorelai!"

"One of!" Lorelai insisted. "I said one of the best parents! Jeez, you call yourself a reporter and you can't even get a little quote like that right."

Rory smirked in response and stuck her tongue out as she started filling her plate from the various options. Bacon, sausage, pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese, french toast and even fruit. And coffee, of course there was lots of coffee.

"This looks great! I don't care who arranged it, it's awesome and exactly what I needed this morning." Rory told them.

"So are you excited?" Luke asked her as they all ate.

"I am. So much." She admitted.

"Nervous?" Chris wondered.

"You know," Rory told them between bites and sips of coffee. "I'm not. I thought I would be, cause I think it's normal to be a bit nervous, but I'm not. Worried that something might not go according to plan, yes. Nervous, no."

"I wasn't nervous." Lorelai said offhand and the other three people in the room - namely Chris, Rory and Luke - looked at her strangely. None of them were sure what to say to that since Lorelai's second wedding was something of a sensitive subject between the men. Both of them were biting their tongues but Rory, being of the same 'Lorelai stock', couldn't not say something.

"Which time?" She asked and hid her smirk behind her coffee cup. Lorelai had suddenly realized what she'd said and was glancing between Chris and Luke waiting for some kind of battle to break out. She hadn't quite figured out that despite their problems of the past, everything that had occurred between Lorelai and Rory since the younger Gilmore Girl's graduation from Yale had placed the two men on the same side of an issue and it was increasingly difficult to get a rise out of either of them.

Lorelai cleared her throat and looked at Rory with a weak smile. "Both times. Of course I didn't really have enough time to get nervous the first time around. It was sort of a 'wham, bam, I do - man' type thing after all."

"Oh my God." Rory gasped as she laughed and chocked on the bite of pancake that she'd just put in her mouth. When she was finally able to breathe again she took another sip of coffee and then continued with another laugh. "I'd love to hear you describe your first wedding to Grandma and Shira that way! Today, please, it'll be hilarious! I can already see their expressions. It'll be great."

"Jeez. Don't encourage the insanity Rory, you'll only make it worse." Luke chided. He put great effort into sounding serious but after nearly two decades of being around the Gilmore Girls, Rory could tell that he was silently laughing, on the inside.

"Nothing could make it worse Luke." Chris chuckled. "She's been like this since we were kids, nothing is gonna change her."

"I think I should be insulted." Lorelai mused.

"Why would you be insulted? What is there to be insulted about? You practically make it your mission in life to make people uncomfortable by what you say and do." Rory pointed out as she continued eating. Every bite she took, every drink of coffee she had lessened the intensity of the miniature jack hammers beating at her skull and with every moment that passed she started to marvel a little bit more about the fact that today was her wedding day. Today she was finally going to marry the love of her life, her best friend, and the one person she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt would always have her back. After more than 18 months of being engaged, she was finally going to become Mrs. Logan Huntzberger.

"Well quite obviously I'm not unchangeable, or irredeemable." Lorelai replied with a saucy smirk and a twinkle in her eye, though considering all of the troubles of the last couple years there was a good deal of sincerity in the words as well. Rory smiled softly at her mother's response and then launched into conversation with her dad and Luke about their various duties throughout the day. The time passed swiftly and soon her grandmothers, both of them, were arriving at her door to sweep her off to her hair and makeup appointments.

* * *

"Logan are you awake?" The softly feminine voice asked as the door to his room creaked open and he heard the quiet voice of his nephew's baby talk that accompanied his sister everywhere she went.

With a smile he turned to two of his favorite people in the world. "I'm awake, Honor. Good morning buddy, did you get mommy up extra early this morning?" He asked as he took Jared, Honor son, from her arms.

Jared burst into giggles when Logan nuzzled at his neck and wrapped his chubby little arms around his favorite uncle's neck. Honor watched the two together and sighed wistfully, for all the mistakes that their own parents made with her and Logan, somehow the two of them had managed to become people who were great with kids.

"We weren't up any earlier than normal." Honor explained. "Have you been up very long? What are you doing in here anyways?"

"I've been up for about an hour, I guess." Logan told her as he settled the baby, who wasn't really a baby anymore at 16 months, on his hip. "I had a shower and got dressed and then I've been sitting here thinking."

"About?" She asked, honestly curious because for the past several days he'd been a bundle of energy - nervous and excited about the coming wedding and his future with Rory, and now on the morning of his wedding day he seemed uncharacteristically solemn and quiet.

"Everything, I guess. Rory and San Francisco. Lorelai and the Gilmores, and Chris and the Haydens. Mom and Dad." Logan explained in a somewhat baffled, confused tone.

"You're not having second thoughts are you?" She didn't think so but it did need to be asked.

"What? No." Logan said and just the surprise in his voice, that she would even ask such a question, was enough to settle her worry on that accord. "No, just..."

He looked at Jared again and smoothed his hand over the young boys head. Jared in his blessedly oblivious way continued to babble on in his sweet little voice. Logan smiled softly and again Honor sighed wistfully, thinking that Logan truly would make a great father.

Finally he looked back to Honor and his eyes practically glowed with happiness. "It's just that 5 years ago I never would have believed that we'd be here. Not just Rory and I, but all of us. Mom and Dad, the Gilmores and Haydens, you and Josh and Jared. All of us."

"We've come a long way, that's for sure." Honor admitted.

"We sure have. Three years ago we never would have even consented to be in the same house as mom and dad and grandpa for more than a couple hours. Yet here we are and we've spent the last 4 days here with them and even more of the extended family. It's actually sort of amazing to me." He told her.

Honor started laughing as she listened to him. What he was saying was absolutely true, but it was sort of funny listening to his musings. She'd been thinking the same thing the night before and when she'd mentioned it to Josh he'd told her she was being over dramatic. It seemed that no matter how long a person was part of the family, at least part of the Huntzberger family, they never really understand everything that makes them tick. Not even her.

"Anyways," she finally managed to say through her laughter. "Mom wanted me to find you and tell you breakfast is ready if you're hungry."

"I think I can eat something." Logan replied and started toward the door.

"I should probably warn you that Tristan and Sara are here, and so are Uncle Michael and Aunt Audrey." Honor said as they moved down the hall to the stairs, and toward the common areas of the house.

"So _that's_ why she wanted me to come down for breakfast." He chuckled in response. "She wants me to act as protection. I can't believe that 30 years later, she's still terrified of Aunt Audrey."

"Hey! You're the one that reconnected with Tristan and made him one of your groomsmen, thereby including his family in the 'event of the century.' So yeah, you're acting as mom's protection. It's only fair." Honor joked with him.

"See, like I said, this is all amazing to me!" Logan told her quietly as they entered the dining room and found both of their parents, Josh and Elias, Janlen Dugrey, Michael and Audrey Dugrey, their son Tristan and his fiancee Sara Anderson.

"There's the man of the hour!" Tristan announced as they entered and stood to approach the siblings.

"I think it's more like man of the day..." Logan corrected.

"Damn Mare's right about that ego of yours. _I_ was talking about Jared!" Tristan told Logan jokingly and took the boy right out of his cousin's arms.

"_Ace_ says the same things about your ego. Need I remind you how she says that if we didn't look so much alike, she'd know we were related simply because of the similarities of our ego's." Logan said archly.

Tristan shrugged. "Almost makes me wish that I'd gone to Yale instead of Oxford."

"Boys." The single word was said in an amused tone but it also carried a thread of warning. "You'll have to forgive him Logan. Ever since that last movie night when we watched the Shakespeare movies he's been weird. And annoying. And I hate to say it but she's been nearly as bad, we might want to keep them separated today as much as possible. He may just object to your wedding."

Logan laughed and gave Sara a hug and kiss on the cheek. "They mostly only do it when you're around, though I'll admit that they've been on my nerves once or twice lately too."

"Ah, trying to make me jealous. How high school?" Sara commented as she raised a brow at Tristan, who merely smiled innocently in response. She shook her head and then looked back to Logan. "You don't look nervous at all. I expected you to be crawling out of your skin by now."

"Hardly," Logan chuckled and Tristan joined in.

"He's got nothing to be nervous about. Besides the fact that he's nearly good enough for her, she seems to think he's the best thing in the world next to coffee." Tristan said to the group.

"Well he is the Huntzberger heir. What more could the girl possibly want?" Michael Dugrey asked. All the younger members of the family, and Sara, rolled their eyes at the ridiculous statment but surprisingly it was Mitchum that answered the mostly rhetorical question.

"Being the heir was more of a deterrent for Rory actually." Mitchum explained to his own cousin. "She'd be much happier if he wasn't."

"So would I most days." Logan added quietly.

Audrey Dugrey gasped. "Don't be silly Logan. Why you're just as bad as Tristan, running off to the other side of the country, working outside of the families. In our day that was unheard of."

"That's silly." Shira retorted. "I may not have been part of the family at the time, but even I know that Mitchum left the family business for a while when he was the boys' age and went off on his own. Eventually he came back and I'm sure that our boys will too eventually."

"Don't hold your breath." Tristan muttered under his breath and only Logan, Sara and Honor heard the words.

"Mom you know it's not that simple. Dad and I have worked out a lot of our issues but the biggest thing that has helped us to actually get along better is the fact that I don't work for him and Grandpa. And that Rory doesn't either." Logan said and where even a couple of years ago the topic would have incited an argument among the Huntzberger men, now they all just nodded in agreement.

"You may be right Shira," Mitchum continued. "Logan may come back to HPG someday but if he doesn't that's fine too. He's doing what he needs to do and that's what's important."

"I don't know where you young kids get these stupid ideas these days, but that has got to be the biggest load of bullhockey that I've ever heard!" Janlen snorted with disgust. "You tell me how it's a good thing for those boys to be working for someone else's company when they should be learning how to run their own!"

"Grandpa we've talked about this." Tristan said.

"And we'll talk about it again." Michael replied.

"Wow, Logan, thanks so much for including me in your wedding. I'm having so much fun spending time with family again. It's so refreshing to know that even with all the successes we've had, that I've had, that I'm still nothing to them but the reluctant and rebellous heir." Tristan said sarcastically as he looked over at Logan and did everything in his power to ignore his parents and grandfather.

Logan shrugged and smirked. "Don't blame me, Rory's the one who suggested you be part of the wedding party remember?"

"Didn't he tell her that he wanted to be in the wedding? Something about how if he couldn't be her groom, the least she could do was insist that he be a groomsman?" Sara wondered aloud.

"Right! It was after the 'Wedding Crashers' weekend last summer. I'd been to that conference in Toronto and Tristan went with Ace to the rallies in Austin." Logan remembered.

"And we had to listen to crappy Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn comedic relief for weeks after." Sara reminded him.

"And I'm still sitting in the room and can hear everything you say!" Tristan exclaimed.

"Really?" Sara mocking gasped and fluttered her hand by her face as if to cool it off. "I thought you'd gone and disappeared, looking for Rory or something."

Tristan narrowed his eyes at her. "You're not really jealous, lover, you just like to make everyone think you are."

"And you're not nearly as annoyed with being here as you'd like everyone to think." Logan pointed out.

"Well this little guy does sort of make it worth the trip." Tristan commented and glanced down at the little boy sitting happily in his lap.

"So did Rory decide what she was going to do now that her contract is up for renewal?" Elias asked, hoping to turn the conversation in a different direction.

"Hopefully she intends to stay at home, like a proper society wife." Audrey put in cuttingly. Logan, Tristan and Honor all rolled their eyes and even Mitchum shook his head and the comment.

"Not entirely." Logan told the group. "The only thing she's decided for sure, was that she was turning down the Washington offer. She doesn't want to pigeon hole herself into Political writing and neither of us was keen on the idea that she'd need to be in DC for two weeks each month."

"Definitely the right choice for her. She's done amazingly well throughout the campaign and during this transition period while Obama settled in to office, but I think she'd probably have more success in features or doing op-eds. She'd probably be happier at it too." Mitchum commented to Logan and Elias.

"Did you tell her that?" Elias asked him. "I know I heard you talking about work with her a couple days ago."

Now it was Mitchum's turn to shrug. "I didn't say it in quite so many words. She didn't mention that she'd already decided to turn down the DC offer, but we did discuss some of the other offers she's received."

"You did?" Logan asked and they could all tell that he was surprised.

"I did." Mitchum confirmed. "I told her that I'd been hearing a lot of rumbles about what she was going to be doing now, questions have been circling after all, and she said that she was glad that I'd brought it up because she had hoped to discuss some of the offers with me."

"I didn't realize that she'd talked to you. I mean, I told her that she should because she was curious about the offers from the HPG papers and I couldn't rightly give her all the information that she'd want about them, but I didn't know that she'd managed to talk to you all ready." Logan explained his surprise.

"Yes well, you and I can talk about it more after breakfast Logan. For now let's just-"

"You didn't honestly suggest to the girl that she continue working though?" Audrey exclaimed.

Michael nodded his agreement with his wife's statement. "It's hardly appropriate."

"Rory will continue working for as long as she wishes to. It wasn't something that I was initially accepting of but I've come to realize that Logan could do far worse than someone that will truly, and fully, understand the demands of the business." Mitchum announced.

"If he comes back to the business." Elias added.

"We may have had our issues but over the last couple of years we've come to learn a few things about Rory, and I think we all agree now that Logan managed to find himself a wonderful young lady and partner." Mitchum finished.

Logan smiled in appreciation of those words. "Thanks Dad."

"Well, she proved herself." He replied with a shrug. "She could have stayed away, in a lot of ways it would have been easier for her because Lord knows the last few years haven't been easy for either of you, but she tracked you down and wouldn't let go."

"And despite all the challenges that her work has thrown at her, she has managed to be present for all the social events that we've requested the two of you to attend. It's more than I had believed she'd be willing to do. Once upon a time." Shira included in the conversation.

"Now." Elias said in a tone that broached no argument. "Let's eat. We've got a wedding to get through today after all."

* * *

There was a nearly audible buzz in the air of the small church at Martha's Vineyard as the friends and families of Logan and Rory waited for the power couple to appear for their wedding nuptials. When Logan and his groomsmen appeared at the head of the church, near the altar, the whispers started. After the practically public refusal more than 2 years earlier everyone wondered whether Rory would actually go through with the ceremony or pull a "Lorelai" and run and disappear. Others wondered at the return of the Dugrey heir to society and how the pair of lovers had managed to convince the young man to come back. And there were still others, and certainly these weren't the most important of the wedding attendees, that marvelled at the flowers and location, the line-up of groomsmen and, when they entered, the bridesmaids.

And then on the arm of her father the bride appeared, respledant in a gown of white and beautiful as any princess could be. Through her thin veil, her distinctive Gilmore Blue eyes practically glowed with happiness and when he saw her, Logan's eyes lit up to match and his smile widened, and softened in to an expression of love that made the society mavens sigh with appreciation.

To Rory, the aisle seemed impossibly long. Far longer than it had been the day before during the wedding rehearsal. As she stepped along slowly with her dad she watched the expression flow over Logan's face and felt an answering smile curl her lips. Then Christopher was placing her hand in Logan's and responding to the priest solemn question as to who was giving her away.

The rest of the ceremony seemed to pass in a rush, a blur. Everything happened as it was supposed to, when it was meant to, and exactly the way they wanted it to. For all of her hopes of burning every moment into her memory, of forgetting not a single word of the priest's sermon- the words of wisdom and prayers that were offered to them, Rory knew as she and Logan started back down the aisle after being pronounced husband and wife that she would remember only three things with absolute clarity: the look on Logan face as she walked up the aisle on Chris's arm, the deep and steady tone of his voice as he repeated his vows, and the moment of absolute perfection when Logan slipped her wedding ring onto her finger, and accepted one onto his own, when his eyes met hers and the love that existed within their hearts, within their souls, was mirrored there.

Hours later as the couple swayed on the dance floor, lost in each other's eyes, the wedding guests, whether Hartford high society or Stars Hollow's own, knew that they had witnessed a very special joining. The doubters and naysayers knew that after everything Rory and Logan had gone through, just to get to the wedding, that the marriage would probably be one of the most successful of any they'd seen, or would ever see. Their families and friends, their loved ones, the people who supported them step by step and stood by them through thick and thin, knew, beyond reason, beyond any shadow of a doubt that Logan and Rory would only become happier as days passed. The love they shared would only grow stronger with time and no matter what life would throw at them, no matter what difficulties arose in the future, it would be worth it. Always.

Eventually the time came for Logan and Rory to say goodbye to their guests and head out for their honeymoon, which Logan had arranged as a surprise for Rory, and they took the opportunity to thank those who they believed were most deserving of it. Rory had changed out of her wedding gown and into a simple, yet elegant, sun dress and Logan was now wearing his typical casual clothes of slacks and a polo. The band asked for everyone's attention and then Logan and Rory took the stage to address the crowd.

"First, we want to thank each and every one of you for coming all the way out here to support us today. For some of you it's quite a trip and we really appreciate that you were willing and able to make it." Logan told the guests and his smile was still big and genuine.

"Second, we want to thank our families - the Gilmore's, Hayden's and Huntzberger's." Rory continued in a tone that did nothing to disguise her happiness. "Without you we wouldn't exist, so thanks. But what's more, is that without your love and support we may not have made it to this point in our lives. In a big way, we owe you."

"And no Dad that does not mean what you hope it does." Logan cut in and caused a ripple of laughter to spread through the crowd. In response Mitchum raised his glass and smiled at the couple.

"Someday." Was all he said.

"We particularly want to thank both of our Mother's, and both my Grandmother's for all the hard work that they had to do to make our wedding the marvelous event that it has been." Rory continued. "Without their help, I probably would have been crazy, and I do mean completely mad, within a matter of weeks of planning. So Mom, Shira, Grandma and Grandma, thank you. For everything."

The four ladies all smiled in response and Lorelai mouthed the words "I love you kid!" to Rory.

"Before we finish up, we'd also like to thank the four men and women who stood up with us today. Finn, Colin, Tristan, Ben, Paris, Lane, Sara and Gigi; thank you for everything that you've helped us out with, everything that we placed in your hands to take care of, and just for putting up with us throughout this whole process. We will be forever grateful." Logan added.

"And I have one last group of people to acknowledge." Rory said softly and glanced at Logan with a pure expression of love on her face. "Lane, Miss Patty and Babette, Lucy and Olivia, Honor, Finn and Colin, and Luke and Dad..." Rory closed her eyes for just a moment, gathering her thoughts and then opened them up and the whole crowd could see that they were moist with unshed tears. "When I didn't want to see the mistakes that I had made, you wouldn't let me hide from them. When I needed your help most of all, you offered it without condition. And when we needed your support, you never once hesitated to give it."

"I will never be able… _We _will never be able to fully thank you for what you did for us. But we want you to know that neither of us will ever forget."

"Thank you."

* * *

"So really," Rory said to him after the limo pulled away from the golf club at Martha's Vineyard. "Where are we going for our super secret, super wonderful honeymoon?"

"Well it would ruin the surprise if I told you now." Logan responded easily despite the severe expression on his wife's face.

"Logan!" She whined.

He opened his eyes wide and mimicked her tone. "Rory!"

"Oh, come on. We're already on our way to the airport. I'm going to figure it out soon enough." Rory firmly told him.

"Soon enough, but not right now." He replied firmly.

She scowled at him and narrowed her eyes. He knew that she was trying to think up some kind of threat to make him anwser her request. Truth be told he was going to tell her but he wanted to make her work for it.

"And if I decide I won't get on the plane with you, regardless of where it's headed?" She asked.

"Then I guess I'll have a nice, relaxing time, by myself, while you're here explaining to our families why I flew off without you." Logan said.

"That's hardly fair! I try to punish you and I'd end up getting punished even more!" She answered, turning whiny again.

Logan shrugged. "Life's lessons, dear. That's all I can say."

"Shut up."

They were quiet for only about five minutes when Rory again turned to him and spoke. "But really, where are we going?"

He had to laugh. And laugh. Sometimes she really was just too predictable and cute. When he finally calmed back down, he kissed her temple and murrmured the answer. "We never did get to go on our Asia trip."

"Really!" Rory squealed in massing excitement. "Our trip? The one I planned three years ago?"

"I helped!" Logan scowled in irritation.

"You did." She agreed quickly, nodding.

"And I tweaked some of the plans. I had to." He added.

She nodded again. "Okay."

"It's really not the _same_ trip."

"But it's similar?" She asked, seeking clarification.

"Yes." He agreed warily and then relaxed when he noticed the smile, and happiness that was written all over her face.

"I really love you."

He smirked. "I know."

She smiled at him. "And?" She prompted.

He laughed again. "I love you too."

"Good."

They lapsed in to silence again, the limo moving swiftly towards the airport. Some time later Rory giggled. Logan tightened his arm around her shoulder and glanced at her.  
"What?"

She glanced up at him and giggled more. "Nothing." She admitted and she smiled slyly. "I bet Tristan $200 that we'd be going to Asia. He didn't think that you'd take me there, so I say that when we get on the plane I call him, waking him up since it'll be late, and tell him that he so totally owes me!"

Logan laughed with her. "What a sucker."

It was her turn to shrug. "He loves me."

"Oh yeah?" He asked.

"Oh yeah." She responded easily, nonchalantly.

"But not as much as I love you." It wasn't a question and both of them knew it.

"And no where near as much as he loves Sara."

"An other important distinction." Logan agreed.

"Very." Rory said.

"You know," he continued after a minute. "Now that our wedding is over and done with, you're going to have to help Sara with the planning of hers. Tristan mentioned that they'd been putting off setting a date and starting planning until ours was over."

"I know. I told her tonight that when we got back I'd start helping as soon as possible." She answered. "We're going to go shopping for her dress first thing. And I told her to talk to Tris and pick a day while we're gone."

"You think they'll have it in San Fran or Hartford?" He wondered.

"San Francisco probably, but definitely California. Sara mentioned last night that after seeing how his family really treats him, she wouldn't want to inflict this place on him on their wedding day." Rory confided to him.

"And that will probably only piss off his parents even more." He said.

"Definitely. But it's Tristan and Sara's wedding and she said that she didn't care how annoyed they got as long as she and Tris were happy." Rory replied.

Logan sighed shook his head in frustration. "Well I wish her all the luck in the world. They aren't easy people to deal with when they like you, and to be honest, I don't know if they'll warm up to her."

"Because she's not Hartford Elite?" She asked.

"Because they didn't pick her out for him." Logan answered.

"Are they really that bad? I've never really spent any time with them, when they weren't on their very best behavior." She told him.

"Let me just say that my mother is terrified of my Aunt Audrey and that if you thought that my mother was bad with her matchmaking in the beginning of our relationship, she's no where near as bad Audrey." He advised.

"Poor Sara." Rory sighed.

"Yes, and poor Tristan." Logan agreed and then he put his arm around her and pulled her to his side. "But enough about my cousin and his fiancee. We got married today."

Rory smiled and looked up at him. "We did." She affirmed.

"You're my _wife._" He said.

"And you're my _husband._" She replied with a grin.

"I really love you." He told her one more time and his smile was as wide as hers.

"Good thing I married you then." Rory answered.

"Good thing." He agreed and leaned down to take her mouth with his own.

And it was a good thing.

It was the beginning of something new.

* * *

**_Okay, just so I don't get a bunch of WTF? comments..._**

Tristan is Logan's cousin (Elias and Janlan married sisters) but they haven't been close in, literally, years. Remember Logan spent most of his school days in various boarding schools all over the world, while Tristan was at home in Hartford until being sent away to Military school. Which, for your information, is when he and Logan really, really lost touch. To make a long story short, in explaination, once Tristan left for MS, he never came back. He finished high school early at the MS and then went on to university. I've got a couple planned one-shot to three-chapter stories that will go in to the return of Tristan and the development of his relationship with Rory, Logan and Sara (the fiancee from this story.) It might be a while before they're up though, cause I really am hoping to focus on _**The Best is Yet to Come**_.

So that's it.

I hope you liked it. I hope you'll let me know.

Happy reading and have a great summer!

~apalusa_light~


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